Contracts Flashcards
What is promissory estoppel?
An equitable doctrine that prevents the withdrawal of a promise by a promisor if it will adversely affect a promisee who has adjusted his or her position in justifiable reliance on the promise.
What are the elements of promissory estoppel?
- The promisor made a promise.
- The promisor should have reasonably expected that promisee would rely on the promise.
- The promisee actually relied on the promise and engaged in an action or forbearance of a right.
- Injustice would result if the promise were not enforced.
What is a contract?
- A legally binding agreement.
- A promise or set of promises which the law will enforce.
- The agreement creates rights and obligations that may be enforced in the courts.
- The normal method of enforcement is an action for damages for breach of contract, though in some cases the court may order performance by the party in default.
Contract law asks the following basic questions:
-Have the parties behaved in such a way as to create legally recognizable expectations in one another?
-If they have, how should those expectations be characterized and understood?
-Was the understanding arrived at faithfully carried out by the parties or somehow thwarted?
If thwarted, what if anything should the law do about it?
What are the three types of jurisdiction
- Original (e.g., trial court- has the ability to hear many different types of cases); 2. General (appellate Cts– review the record and make determination as to matter of law); 3. Limited.
What is a contract?
- A legally binding agreement.
- A promise or set of promises which the law will enforce.
- The agreement creates rights and obligations that may be enforced in the courts.
- The normal method of enforcement is an action for damages for breach of contract, though in some cases the court may order performance by the party in default.
What important facts helped the court decide against the defendant doctor and award damages to the plaintiff boy in Hawkins v. McGee?
The defendant doctor said before the operation was decided upon, “I will guarantee to make the hand a hundred per cent perfect hand or a hundred per cent good hand.”
What is an assumpsit?
A common law form of legal action available to a plaintiff who claims that a contract has been breached.
Three (3) steps in determining expectation damages:
(1) Figure out what the position of the non-breaching party would have been if the promise had not been breached;
(2) Figure out the position that the non-breacher is presently in as a result of the breach;
(3) Figure how much he or she needs to get from the present position to the position he or she would have been in if the contract had been performed.
What rule of contract law did the court apply to the facts in Hamer v. Sidway?
In general a waiver of any legal right at the request of another is sufficient consideration for a promise.
What are the two elements of consideration?
(1) Something of legal value must be given; and
(2) there must be a bargained-for exchange.
Legal Value Test
The promisee suffers a legal detriment; or
The promisor receives a legal benefit.
What is a gratuitous promise?
a promise that cannot be enforced as a contract because there has been no exchange of consideration (=the promise of payment or of something of value made in exchange for performance of a contract)
What rule did the court follow in reaching its decision in Feinberg v. Pfeiffer Co.?
A promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action or forbearance on the part of the promisee and which does induce such action or forbearance is binding if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise.
What is the issue addressed by the court in Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon?
Was plaintiff Wood’s promise illusory and therefore not supported by consideration, since it did not obligate him to take any positive action or do anything of an affirmative nature whatsoever?
