Understand the Legal Requirements for a Valid Contract

-the reasoning: the letter agreement left the point of delivery up to future negotiation and was not specific to all essential terms. The letter was unenforceable agreement to agree and there was no contract.

Offer- This is defined as a clear manifestation of willingness to enter an agreement made by another person with full understanding that their assent to the bargain is an invitation and is concluded.

A mistake is defined in contract law as a belief that is not in accord with the facts. The law recognizes certain mistakes and provides a solution intended to make the parties whole again (Melvin, 2011). However, a mutual mistake may be the basis for canceling a contract (also called avoiding the contract) when both parties hold an erroneous belief. The mistake in this case focusses on assumption made by Chou. After the oral agreement was reached, Chou offered to draft a written version of the contract. During this process, Chou received an e-mail from the BTT manager who simply restated the key terms of the agreement. After receiving this e-mail, Chou mistakenly assumed the BTT manager wanted to draft the contract. This erroneous belief by Chou caused the 90-day deadline to pass without a written contract. This 90-day deadline was a binding stipulation of the original negotiating contract.

BTT could not avoid this contract under the doctrine on mistake. A mistake is defined in contract law as a belief that is not in accord with the facts. I do not believe that the doctrine of mistake would have any bearing in this scenario.

P2 EXPLAIN THE LAW IN RELATION TO THE FORMATION OF A CONTRACT IN A GIVEN SITUATION

An offer is classified through the notion and understanding the willingness of both parties to enter into a bargain or proposal to a contract. The person who makes an offer is the offeror. The person to whom he makes that offer is the offeree. The terms are annoying but inescapable because, like handcuffs, all courts use them. Stan who is the salesperson on the car lot allowed the buyers Jim and Laura to test-drive the car, after test driving the blue four door sedan the couple gave Stan a 100-dollar deposit to hold the car for one day without signing any paperwork.

In the Common Law system, “the Mailbox Rule is an alternate term for the Postal Rule; when mailed, an acceptance of an offer to contract is valid from the moment it is deposited into a mailbox; on dispatch.” The Mailbox rule is an exception to the general rule that a contract is created when acceptance is directly communicated to the offeror. The mailbox rule provides that the contract is formed when the letter of acceptance is placed in the mailbox. This rule was established by the case of Adams v. Lindsell (1818) B& Ald 68. In this case, Judge Law said that if that were

A contract comes into existence with the initiation of an offer made by one party, which in turn should be ‘accepted’ by the other party. The element of offer and acceptance thus initiate the legal process of the formation of a valid and binding contract. The significance of acceptance with respect to the contract laws stems from the fact that the proposed offer must be accepted by the promisee and forthwith be communicated to the promisor. Together offer and acceptance create a promise which can

Although Amy did not accept the offer from Dr Hu to purchase her medical equipment in the prescribed form of post, her acceptance is still valid. It was suggested that ‘where the offeror has prescribed a particular method of acceptance, but not in terms insisting that only acceptance in that mode shall be binding, that acceptance communicated to the offeror by any other mode which is no less advantageous to him will conclude the contract’ . Therefore suggesting that even though Amy did not respond via post as was asked by Dr Hu, the wording in Dr Hu’s email said that ‘you can respond’, can meaning that it was not specified as the only means of accepting the offer, and that other means of acceptance would be seen to form a binding agreement between the two parties. As Amy’s email was in no way less advantageous to Dr Hu it can be seen as a valid acceptance of the offer that was put to Amy. Amy sent her email of acceptance to the email that she received the email from, which conforms with Section 13A(a) of the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 (NSW) which states ‘the time of receipt of the electronic communication is the time when the electronic communication becomes capable of being retrieved by the addressee at an electronic address designated by the addressee’

In BROGDEN v METROPOLITAN RAIL CO it was held the railway company had accepted by placing orders since the amendment of the document, and in TRENTHAM LTD v ARCHITAL LUXFER the court used the 'reasonable man' to identify whether or not there has been acceptance. Both cases seemed to have reasonable outcomes; therefore the courts had been provided with satisfactory rules to help them reach a appropriate verdict. There are various different rules regarding acceptance. There must be a communication of acceptance from the offeree to the offeror. The case of YATES BUILDING v PULLEYN deals whether there had been a prescribed acceptance or not. It was held that there was no practical difference to the offeror therefore the acceptance method was binding. However in the case of ENTORES LTD v MILES FAR EAST CORPORATION there was no prescribed acceptance, yet it was held that the contract was formed in England as that was there acceptance had been received by telex. Other rules that can be used to decide whether there has been acceptance include a waiver of communication of acceptance; silence, which isn't a valid acceptance; ignorance, generally there isn't a binding contract; and acceptance via post using the postal rule. The postal rule can often be misused, as it states that a contract has been formed as

An acceptance of an offer is “ a manifestation of assent to the terms thereof made by the offeree in a manner invited or required by the offer.

An offer is an expression of willingness by one party to contract on certain terms with another party with the understanding that the contract will become binding when accepted by the person to whom it is offered. An offer may be made in different ways, such as in a letter, an email, or even your behavior, so long as it conveys the basis on which the offering party is willing to contract. An offer should consist of: (1) a statement of present intent by the offering party to enter into a contract; (2) a specific proposal that is certain in its terms; and (3) a communication that identifies the person to whom the offer is made. If any of these elements are not present, an offer has not been made. (Walker, C. B., 2012)

The postal rule was developed to facilitate contracting at a distance. Initially, bargaining at a distance often posed a great challenge to bargaining parties especially through the postal services. This was mainly because via the mail parties could not know simultaneously whether they had reached an agreement. As a result a general rule indicating the time of an acceptance had to be established. Consequently the postal acceptance rule was developed .The postal rule function to create an exception to the general rule, which stipulates that an acceptance will only be effective upon receipt

A contract is a written or spoken agreement between two or more parties that involves the exchange of two promises, which is intended to be enforceable by law. The four basic elements are the offer, consideration, acceptance, and mutuality. When elements are broken down individually, each one is just as important as the next. If one of these elements are broken or misunderstood, it could mean result in the contractual agreement becoming not valid and end in lawsuit. The overall purpose of the contract is for legal purpose and to keep a order within an agreement.

Introduction: In this assignment I will go over a few legal terms in relation to contract law. I will also talk about a few precedents that help explain the law.