LST2BSL Common Law - Assignment Solution

Question 1:

Issue:

Julie is a run a small traffic management business and Simon has contacted her for getting her traffic divergent services for the first week of February. Hence, in the above scenario, the issue at hand is whether the acceptance has been effectively communicated? 

Rules:

For the contract to be legally binding, following criteria should be met:

1. There should be an offer from one party
2. The other party should accept the proposed offer
3. There needs to be intention of creating legal relations of both parties
4. There should be capacity to enter into contract
5. Consideration should be there

For the contract to be legally binding, the agreement must be made either orally, or be documented into a report, or it can also be implied. In case of implied, one party must have discussed with other and promised to pay the other party for a certain service if discharged. Moreover, there should be consideration against the offered contract and both the parties must have full capacity to enter into legal agreements. The acceptance of offer must be made via fax/email/phone/SMS as it may be expressed, implied or through performance. 

Application:

In the given case scenario, the offer has been made by Simon to Julie for her availing her traffic management services for road works to be beginning in February. Julie has agreed to the offer and has proceeded to deliberate on the agreement terms. Simon is also willing to pay the requested amount of money ($340/hr.) if the task has been completed by Julie after getting approval to her. All the communication has been well documented on the mobile and email address. However, Julie has not agreed for the job via email or SMS, still they have formed a binding contract. This is considered as an implied agreement in which both parties have agreed to comply with terms.

Conclusion:

In the given scenario, both parties have legally entered into a binding contract by fulfilling all the elements of the legally enforceable contract. 

Question 2:

Issue:

Julie has been contacted by Peter (Local Fundraiser) for getting her services for annual charity fundraiser. Julie double-booked the dates by mistake and declined to offer her services afterwards. The question arises whether the acceptance has been effectively communicated by Julie to Peter and whether the agreement is binding?

Rules:

For the contract to be legally enforceable, both the parties must fulfil the following criteria:

1. A valid offer must be made by one party
2. Acceptance (expressed, implied, performance based) must be made through fax/ email/ phone/ post or by SMS
3. Both the parties must have capacity to enter into legal agreements
4. There should be intention of entering into agreement in business context, social context or charitable/volunteer context
5. Sufficient consideration should be there except for Deeds and Promissory Estopped. Appropriate amount of deliberations concerning the offer should be made that involves offering a fee in exchange for a specific service. This is known as the price of the offer as well . 

The contract can be discharged by agreement, performance, frustration or rescission while breach of contract occurs when obligations have not been discharged as promised. In the case of breach of contract, the affected party can claim for the damages immediately.