Business Law II

Courts will not enforce a sales agreement when the agreement is not socially responsible.

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Davis v. Mason was typical of disputes at that time. The court took a laissez-faire approach, declaring that parties had freedom to contract and would have to live with the consequences. The law had gone from ignoring most promises to enforcing nearly all

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For a contract to be enforceable, seven requirements must be present.

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Consent

Certain kinds of trickery and force can prevent the formation of a contract.,

What are the three basic questions that are important when analyzing contracts?

Is it certain that the defendant promised to do something? If she did not promise, are there unusual reasons to hold her liable anyway? If the defendant did promise, is it fair to make her honor her word?

Acceptance

Once a party receives an offer, he must respond to it in a certain way.,

If a party fully accomplishes what the contract requires, his duties are discharged. But what if his obligations are performed poorly, or not at all?

Performance and Discharge.

Legality

The contract must be for a lawful purpose.

Capacity

The parties must be adults of sound mind.,

Which of the following are factors cited by the court in Davis v. Mason as the basis for its ruling on the noncompetition agreement?

The terms were not necessarily unreasonable The public was unlikely to be injured by the agreement The parties exchanged fair consideration

Consideration

There has to be bargaining that leads to an exchange between the parties.,

If Ella and Declan have a contract that falls apart, can Tyrone sue to enforce the agreement?

Third party interests

Writing

While verbal agreements are often contracts, some types of contracts must be in writing to be enforceable., Offer All contracts begin when a person or a company proposes a deal, but only proposals made in certain ways amount to a legally recognized offer.,

In the early twentieth century, courts increasingly began to analyze the basic fairness of a contract. What change lead to this shift in the common law?

farms and small businesses were being replaced by corporations By the early twentieth century, bargaining power in business deals had changed dramatically. Farms and small businesses were being replaced place by huge corporations. A large corporation may have a vast amount of leverage when it contracts with a small company or an individual consumer, and so courts increasingly began to look at the basic fairness of contracts.

By the fifteenth century, courts would permit suits based on a broken promise

if one party had paid some amount of money The common law changed very slowly. By the fifteenth century courts began to allow some suits based on a broken promise but only if one party had paid some money to the other. Agreements made without any money changing hands were still unenforceable unless they were written and sealed. This finally changed in 1602 when courts began enforcing contracts in which neither party had given the other anything but each made a promise to do something in the future.

In the surrogacy suit between Mary Beth Whitehead and William and Elizabeth Stern, the court awarded the baby to the Sterns because

it was in the baby's best interest The New Jersey court declared the surrogacy contract illegal and void. However, the court awarded the baby to the Sterns, saying that it was in the baby's best interests to live with them.

Relief a court will award to a party injured by a breach of contract.

remedies

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, courts did not consider promises binding unless

they were in writing and sealed Contract law has not always been as flexible as it is today. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, promises were not binding unless a person made them in writing and affixed a seal to the document. This was seldom done, so most promises were unenforceable.

A contract is a promise that the law will enforce.

true

Contract law varies from state to state.

true

Today, courts enforce the majority of contracts.

true

Contract law is based on the notion that

you are the best judge of your own welfare Contract law is based on the notion that you are the best judge of your own welfare. For the most part, you are free to enter into any agreement you want, subject to whatever rules you choose, and the law will support you. However, this freedom is not limitless, as the law imposes certain contract requirements.