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Liability in Contract

A legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties


Guarantee and contracts for the deposition of land (and interests in land) are
exceptions to the rule that they have a particular form.
A contract for the sale/ deposition of land must be in writing or its terms
recorded in writing, the contract must be signed.
Guarantees contracts under which a person agrees to answer to another
person for debt, default or liability of a third person, must be in writing and
signed by a guarantor.
The most common legal remedy for breach of contract is damages a monetary
sum.
There MUST be Contractual Intention (intention to be legally bound). Balfour v
Balfour - A husband worked overseas and agreed to send maintenance payments
to his wife. Payments stopped. Held:
The agreement was a purely social and domestic agreement and therefore it was
presumed that the parties did not intend to be legally bound.
Essentials of a Contract
a) There is an agreement between the parties;
b) In reaching the agreement, the parties intend to create a legal
relationship; and
c) The promises in the agreement are supported by consideration (in the
form of a promise; one parties promise is a consideration for the others
etc.)
You have to show that there is more than a 50/50 chance that you are correct.
Rebutting Contractual Intention
Contracts binding in honour only make an agreement
Major obligation at the sole discretion person who has agreed to do
something, have the discretion, whether or not they would like to back out: not
an agreement that has the necessary contractual intention.
Preventing contract: specifically saying in the agreement that this agreement
does not give rise to any legal relationship nor is it intended that legal
consequences shall flow from it.
Dont want to phrase your clause in such a way that it will exclude the
jurisdiction of the court. You legally cant stop the court from deciding the case.
You can however use an arbitration clause there might be a complicated/
technical dispute where there will be a better result if instead of a judge deciding
the dispute you seek another professional; arbitrator.

Arbitration private
Court Hearings public
Other ways of rebutting contractual agreement can say agreement is
subject to contract (not a contract until put into writing), subject to formal
agreement drawn up by solicitors, or subject to solicitors approval.
Past Consideration is no consideration Re McArdle: Renovations on a house
were completed, after completion agreement was made in regards to payment.
Payment never made. Held promise to make payment after consideration had
been performed, therefore the promise to make payment was not binding.
Consideration price of a promise in return, can arise in an exchange of
promises.
Promise can only be enforced if the opposing party receives something in return.
Determining whether an agreement has been made the courts usually decide
this. 99% of the time if they can see that someone has made an offer and the
offer has been accepted by the other party.
AGREEMENT = OFFER + ACCEPTANCE
An offer can be revoked/ withdrawn any time before its acceptance; acceptance
may also be withdrawn any time before it has been communicated to the person
whom made the offer.
Offeror person making offer
Offeree person who offer is made to
On the phone/ face to face agreement is made, there and there as it is
communicated instantaneously.
Postal Rule (exception) when you are accepting an offer and acceptance is
put in the post, your acceptance is deemed to have taken place when you put
the offer in the post not when it reaches or is communicated to the offeror. The
offeror may or may not know that he/she has a contract if the acceptance is in
the mail. Under these circumstances if they were to sell to another offeree they
would be held in a breach of contract and be liable for damages.
An offer is an indication that a person intends to be bound by (the terms of) the
offer if the offer is accepted by the offeree(s).
An offer must not be ambiguous Harvey v Facey: Selling property the person
wanting to buy it said what would I have to pay to buy the property, owner said
would accept... enquiry by person who wants to buy, owner arguably saying
want to sell. Not really an offer as the owner was ambiguous.
Invitation to treat invited to make an offer to the owner.

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemist Boots (chemist)


accused of selling drugs they werent entitled to. Stated they didnt offer them to
sell, they were merely inviting the customer to make an offer of sale to them.
Ways in which an offer can be revoked offeror before acceptance makes
another offer, or if the offeror clearly says the original offer is no longer available.
May also be revoked by conduct, or reject it.
A promise to keep an offer open cannot be enforced if nothing was given by the
offeree in return i.e. there was no consideration or the agreement was not in the
form of a deed. There is no remedy if the item is sold. If there nothing is given in
return then there isnt any liability, they arent accountable.
Everything depends on what the court thinks the parties involved intended.
Unilateral Contract made to world by in large: calls upon offeree to do
something in return for some form of benefit, or offers for reward i.e. police
offering reward for information leading to the arrest of a killer etc. As soon as you
have finished your obligations there is a contract, immediately, and therefore
gives you a right to bring an action to breach of contract.
Factors affecting validity of contract: Age (minors), mental disability (doesnt
allow you to understand the input you must do, people may take advantage of
you), intoxication. Mistakes dont have any incapacity, but there is some form
of labelling error etc. This allows the court to step in and readjust the contract to
provide justice. A mistake can only be one of three sorts: Unilateral mistake - one
person is mistaken, yet the other isnt (have to go further to get courts help).
Common mistake: both parties have made a mistake about the same thing.
Cross-purposes mistake (rare) two people have made a mistake, different, yet
about the same general thing. Duress: physical threats to person, property or
economic interests. North Ocean Shipping v Hyundai Construction US$
fluctuation in the disadvantage of Hyundai Construction, tried to renegotiate
contract due to valuation change. Claim must get into court as soon as the
duress has gone.
Contractual Mistakes Act 1977 the mistake must have been one of the things
that influenced the mistaken party to enter the contract.
Contracts in restraint of trade contracts which contain a restraint of trade
clause are not illegal provided the clause in reasonable terms of: time/ duration
and geographic area. This enables for example the purchaser of the business to
set up his/her own good will.

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