R2C- Offer and Acceptance Flashcards
(34 cards)
Promise
A promise is a manifestation of intent to act or refrain from acting in a certain way
Agreement
A manifestation of mutual assent
Bargain
Agreement (a manifestation of mutual assent) to exchange promises or exchange promise for performance
Formation of a contract
Requires an agreement (manifestation of mutual assent) to exchange promises (manifestation of mutual intent to act/not act) or promise for performance
With manifestation of mutual assent to exchange
Manifestation of mutual assent to an exchange requires that…
Each party makes a promise (manifestation to intent to act/not act) or begins to render a performance
Conduct may be made wholly or partially by written or spoken words or by acts or failure to act
Must intent to engage in the conduct or know/has reason to know the other party may infer from the conduct that there is assent
Conduct may manifest assent even if there is not in fact assent (may be voidable contract per fraud, duress, mistake)
Manifestation of mutual assent to exchange usually comes in the form of…
Offer and acceptance
May be made even though neither can be identified and formation is undetermined
Offer
Manifestation of willingness to enter into a bargain (an agreement to exchange promises (manifestation of intent to act/refrain from act) or promise for performance)
Made to justify another person in understanding that his assent is invited and will conclude the deal
Preliminary negotiations
Manifestation of willingness to enter into a bargain is not an offer if the person to whom its addressed knows or has reason to know that the deal isn’t concluded until the offeror has made a further manifestation of assent
Contract
A promise (a manifestation of intention to act or refrain from acting in a specified way) for which the breach of the law gives a remedy
Form of Acceptance
An offer may invite or require acceptance to be made by an affirmative answer in words, or by performing or refraining from performing a specified act or may empower the offeree to make a selection of terms in his accelerate
Unless otherwise indicated by the language or the circumstances, an offer invites acceptance in any manner and any medium under the circumstances
Mode of assent
Manifestation of mutual assent takes the form of an offer/proposal followed by acceptance
Can be made even though moment of formation is undetermined
Does a written memorial override a manifestation of assent?
No, manifestations of assent that are in themselves sufficient to conclude a contract will not be prevented from operating by the fact that the parties also manifest an intention to prepare a wittier memorial but the circumstances may show that the agreements are preliminary negotiations
Express contract
Formed by language (oral or written)
Implied contract
Formed by conduct
What if a contract involves goods and services?
Majority rule test- predominant purpose test
Minority rule test- gravamen of the action
If contract divides payment between goods and services the court will likely apply UCC to the transactions in goods portion of the contact and common law to services portion
Option Contract
An option contract is a promise which meet the requirements for the formation of a contract and limits the promisor’s power to revoke an offer
The power of acceptance is not terminated by rejection or counter-offer, by revocation, or by death or incapacity, unless the requirements are met for the discharge of a contractual duty
When is an option contract created?
It is created when the offeree tenders or begins the invited performance or tenders a beginning of it as long as the offer invites the offeree to accept by rendering a performance and does not invite a promissory acceptance
What happens when during acceptance there’s a request for change of terms?
If there is a request to change or add additional terms the acceptance is still valid
unless….
acceptance is made to depend on an assent to the changed or added terms
Integrated agreements
1) an integrated agreement is a writing or writings constituting a final expression of one or more terms of an agreement
2) whether there is an additional agreement to be determined by the courts as a question preliminary to determination of a question of interpretation or to application of parol evidence rule
3) where the parties reduce a writing which in view of its completeness and specificity reasonably appears to be a complete agreement unless it is established by other evidence that the writing did not constitute a final expression
Whose meaning prevails when the parties have attached a different meaning?
§201 (2)
It is interpreted in accordance with the meaning attached by one of them if at the time the agreement was made that party didn’t know or didn’t have reason to know of any different meaning attached by the other, and the other knew or had reason to know the meaning attached by the first party
Otherwise…
Neither party is bound by the meaning attached by the other
§209
Integrated agreements
1) An integrated agreement is a writing or writings constituting a final written expression of one or more terms of an agreement
2) Whether there is an integrated agreement is to be determined by the court as a question preliminary to determination of a question of interpretation or to application of the parol evidence rule
3) Where the parties reduce an agreement to a writing which in view of its completeness and specificity reasonably appears to be a complete agreement, it is taken to be an integrated agreement unless it is established by other evidence that the writing did not constitute a final expression
§210
Completely and partially integrated agreements
1) A completely integrated agreement is adopted by the parties as a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement
2) A partially integrated agreement is other than a completely integrated agreement
3) whether an agreement is completely or partially integrated is to be determined by the court as a question preliminary to determination of a question of interpretation or to application of the parol evidence rule
§211
Standardized Agreements
1) except as stated in subsection (3), where a party to an agreement signs or otherwise manifest assent to a writing and has reason to believe that like writings are regularly used to embody terms of agreement of the same type, he adopts the writing as an integrated agreement with respect to the terms included in the writing
2) such a writing is interpreted wherever reasonable as treating alike all those similarly situated, without regard to their knowledge or understanding of the standard terms of the writing
3) where the other party has reason to believe that the party manifesting such assent would not do so if he knew that the party contained a particular term, the term is not part of the agreement
§213
Effects of integrated agreement on prior agreements (Parol evidence rule)
1) a binding integrated agreement discharges prior agreements to the extent that it is inconsistent with them
2) a binding completely integrated agreement discharges prior agreements to the extent that they are within scope
3) an integrated agreement that is not binding or that is voidable and avoided does not discharge a prior agreement. But an integrated agreement, even though not binding, may be effective to render inoperative a term which would have been part of the agreement if it had not been integrated