Question

Nikita a 17-year-old who lived in an apartment, needed a job to pay her rent and bills. She found one advertised online. After attending an interview, Nikita was told that she could have it. However, this meant that she would need an appropriate new computer to fulfil the requirements of the job to be able to work from home as required. Nikita decided to buy a new computer. She went to Orange Computer Store owned by Jasmine and saw a computer that would serve the purpose. It cost $2000, but Nikita only had $1000 to be able to leave as a deposit. Nikita asked Jasmine if she could pay it off. Jasmine felt sorry for Nikita and agreed that she could have the computer in return for a payment of $100 interest free per week until it was paid off. Nikita also handed over her current computer as part of the plan. After a month of work exhaustively in her new role, Nikita decided this was too hard and quit her job. She also stopped making payments on the computer.

Question Discuss with Jasmine whether she would be successful in suing Nikita for the balance of the money for the computer under contract law. Use case references to support your answer.

Answer 1

Nikita had a job offer that required a computer. She bought that for $2000 from Jasmine but as she was short of funds, so she paid $1000 upfront and agreed to pay $100 per week until the remaining amount will be paid off.

However, after a month she quit her job and stopped the payment to Jasmine. This is a breach of a contract.
Nikita being a minor can void the contract as the law does not recognize any contract made by minor. There are exceptions for such voiding of contracts. It also needs to considered that the voiding such contract may result in financial damages to the other party so if a minor is possessing the property or asset then he must return it and the contract can not be exited by a minor if that property is not returned.

A minor can exit the contract if that property is destroyed or spent. Jasmine can only recover the computer from Nikita since her contract is not recognized by the law.