Legal and Ethical Scenarios
Consideration and Capacity
The law of contract provides certain essential elements that have to be fulfilled so that it can be legally binding. These elements include an offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and an intention to create a legally binding agreement. An offer involves the first step that is made by two parties when entering into a contractual agreement. An offer can include things of monetary value, money, or something that amounts to a value that can be exchanged with a performance by the other party. An offer can be imposed in various forms that include adverts, letters, emails, faxes, and even behaviors. Acceptance involves the act of agreeing or performing actions that either expressly or impliedly show that one has agreed to the conditions of the offer. Consideration is the monetary value attached to contracts, while capacity entails the legal ability of an individual to enter an agreement. The capacity is determined by the age of the individual, mental status, whether sane or insane, and also intoxication grounds. Henceforth, minors and older adults cannot enter into a legally binding agreement on their own, but only with the assistance of an individual who has attained the age of majority. Insane persons cannot enter into a legally binding agreement since their state of mind is termed not to comprehend the whole activity. This also is the position with intoxicated persons who, while drunk or high on substance use, cannot enter into a legally binding agreement but only when assisted by a person of sound mind.
Lucinda’s incidence attracts a lot of disparity as her primary need was to seek someone who would help her after her car broke down due to the unfavorable winter weather. The couple that helps her do it in good faith and without the intention of creating a legally binding contract. However, Lucida’s mother, Louise, on her appreciative gesture, makes an offer to the couple through email, where she promises to pay $500 to help cover the expenses. The couple accepts the offer by returning the email, which now formulates a contract between the two parties. However, she refuses to pay after an argument with her daughter Lucinda.
The couple can hold Louise liable for breach of contract since the moment she promised to pay $500 for expenses made an offer and of which they accepted. Contracts are binding to the parties involved and cannot be broken by the doings of third parties (privity of contracts). Louise is therefore obligated to pay the couple. In the case of Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company (1893), it was held that a promise to compensate any individual who contracted the influenza virus with 100 pounds after using the smoke ball amounted to a contract. The same was legally binding to any individual who accepted the offer made by the company and used the smoke balls to prevent the influenza virus. That made Carlill’s claim to the 100 pounds valid. The fact that Louise promised the couple amounted to an offer and the acceptance of the same is presumed to have created a legally binding agreement that she was liable to and was supposed to honor.
Types of Contracts
There are different types of contracts, which include express an implied, void and voidable, executed, and executory, among others. Nevertheless, the express contracts consist of agreements where the parties involved stipulate the terms. These terms may be provided orally or in written form but must present the intentions of the parties. Generally, if an express contract is created, any other contract of the same nature cannot be, by fact, implied. This is since the law will consider the express contract over the implied contract.
Implied contracts are derived from facts and circumstances of the contract or the frequent conduct of the parties. They are, in most cases, not formally or stated in words explicitly. The law considers implied and express contracts binding as they arise from the intentions of parties.
The fact that Dr. Brown and the North State University have been having expressed written contracts every semester, stipulating the services he has to offer and other caveats, makes him believe that there exists a contract.
The type of contract that exists is an express one since, towards the end of the semester, Brown was told which classes he would teach in the fall even though they didn’t sign a written contract.
The NSU breached the contract by dint that it had already prepared Brown by word of mouth, which amounted to an express contract. The provision that “the parties acknowledged that the NSU or the instructor might cancel the agreement at any time before the first class session,” could not be invoked. This was overridden by the main contract of teaching in the fall, which binds the parties.