Contract Final Exam Flashcards
What are some of the ways you interact with contract law?
- Electricity
- Mobile phone services
- Attendance at school
- Shopping
- Entertainment
- Employment
What is a contract?
A contract may be defined as an agreement between two or more parties that is intended to be legally binding.
What makes a PROMISE legally enforceable?
- Capacity
- Valid offer
- Valid acceptance
- Consideration
- Intention to create legal relations
- No duress
- Legal objectives and not contrary to public policies
- Formality
What are the two types of contract?
- Express
- Implied
Implied-in-fact
Implied-in-law
What is an express contract?
Express contracts consist of agreements in which the terms are stated by the parties. The terms may be stated orally or in writing, but the contract as a whole must reflect the intention of the parties.
What is an Implied-in-fact contract?
Contracts implied in fact are inferred from the facts and circumstances of the case or the conduct of the parties. However, such contracts are not formally or explicitly stated in words. a contract implied in fact is just as binding as an express contracts that arises from the parties’ declared intentions, with the only difference being that for contracts implied in fact courts will infer the parties’ intentions from their business relations and course of dealings.
What is an Implied-in-law contract?
Contracts implied in law are agreements imposed by courts or statute despite the absence of at least one element essential to the formation of a binding agreement.
For example, the law creates these types of agreements to prevent one party from being unjustly enriched at the expense of another.
What are the major sources of contract law?
These are:
- Common Law
- Statute Law
What are the elements of a contract?
- Offer
- Acceptance
- Consideration
- Mutuality of obligation
- Competency and capacity
- A written instrument
What is an offer?
An offer is an expression of willingness to contract made with the intention (actual or apparent) that it shall become binding on the offeror as soon as it is accepted by the person to whom it is addressed.
To who may an offer be made?
An offer can be made to:
- one person;
- a group of persons; or
- to the world at large
What are the types of offer?
- Unilateral
2. Bilateral
What is an Unilateral offer?
This is a purely “one-sided” offer and is made without the offeror’s having any idea whether they will ever be taken up and accepted, and thereby transformed into a contract.
What is a Bilateral offer?
1,Most offers are bilateral
- Negotiated on a promise for a promise basis
- Usually involves a person making an offer to a specific person (or small group of persons) and both persons are able to negotiate a promise for a promise.
What are the communications that DO NOT constitute an offer?
- Advertisements
- Display of goods
- Opinions
- Letters of Intent
- Invitation to submit a bid
- Mass mailings
- Price estimates
- Catalogues
When is an offer effective?
1.Receipt of offer:
An offer is not valid until received by offeree or his agent
2. Duration of offer:
If the offer has a stated time within which the acceptance must be made, any attempted acceptance after the expiration of that time will fail and will merely constitute a counter-offer by the offeree.
If no specific time is stated within which the offeree must accept, it is assumed that the offeror intended to keep the offer open for a reasonable period of time, to be determined based on the nature of the proposed contract, trade usage, prior dealings and other circumstances of which the offeree knows or should know.
Generally, the time for accepting an offer begins to run from the time it is received by the offeree. If there was a delay in delivery of the offer of which the offeree is aware, the usual inference is that the time runs from the date on which the offeree would have received the offer under ordinary circumstances.
3. Telephonic or face-face offer
Generally, courts hold that in telephonic or face-to-face communications in which an offer is made, the offer lapses when the conversation terminates in the absence of a clear indication or inference that the offer remains open beyond the conversation.