Question

A. Tonka sells a tractor to Michael who is 16 years old. Michael paid $3000 for the tractor. The next day while mowing a person's lawn Michael flips over the tractor doing extensive damage. It turns out Michael was drunk at the time. The next day he returns the tractor to Tonka demanding the return of his money. Tonka determines that the tractor has sustained $2000 in damages and tells Michael they are deducting that the money that Michael has paid. Is Michael entitled to receive back all of the money he has paid and be released from the contract? Explain.

B. When Michael arrived home from Tonka he saw his neighbor had a problem with the tree that fell on the neighbor's house Michael spent eight hours helping the neighbor cut and remove the tree. The neighbor was so grateful that after they finished the neighbor offered to pay Michael $500 for his help. Michael told the neighbor he appreciated the offer and could use the money. If the neighbor refuses to pay can Michael enforce the promise? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Michael is a minor and by law he is not capable of contract. Any contract (in this case an implied one) is void ab intio. But the situation takes an interesting turn when Michael flips while being intoxicated and damages the tractor.

In this case Tonka knew at the time of the contract that Michael is not of legal age to enforce a contract at all. Hence in spite of being under the influence of alcohol Michael should get back his money. He was in no position to contract with Tonka at the first place and Tonka should have avoided the whole contract. By law if Michael demands to come out of the contract before he is an adult he should get back the money. But as the property was under his control any restitution charges Michael has to pay. Hence in this case Michael will get the proportionate amount of his money back.

Second scenario involves Michael and his neighbor. Here he saw his neighbor having a tough time with the tree that fell on his house. He decided to help his neighbor and successfully did so for 8 hours .After the work was done his neighbor said out of satisfaction that he would like to pay him USD 500.

Here we have to understand that Michael decided to help his neighbor before he was offered the money. An unwritten or implied contract can be forced where the premium or considerations and terms are previously agreed upon. Here the consideration amount of $500 was revealed by his neighbor after the activity was over. Hence a contract cannot be enforced anyway. Hence Michael cannot enforce the promise as the contract never really took place.