Question

1. A valid contract has four required elements: agreement (offer and acceptance), consideration, capacity, and legality. Even when those four elements are present, there can be a valid defense to a contract’s enforceability. For each of the following, answer whether there is an enforceable contract and explain either why or why not.

Example: Betsy hires Frank to transport a shipment of cocaine for her. Answer: Not an enforceable contract. The element of legality is not satisfied because a contact to commit a crime is illegal.

Example: Johnny offers to buy Keith’s goat for $50. Keith says that he would sell the goat for $55. Answer: Not an enforceable contract because there has been no acceptance. Keith’s answer is a counteroffer to Johnny’s offer.

Example: Tom accepts an oral offer to teach at CSU for Fall Semester 2020 through Fall Semester 2025. No enforceable contract. It is a contract that is required to be in writing because it cannot be performed in one year or less. Because the contract was only oral, it is not enforceable.

1. Johnny sees Smith walking down the road and offers to take him home for $5. Smith agrees. There is no written agreement.
2. A group of students downtown Friday night flag down a cab. The cab stops, they get in, and the driver asks them where they are going. They give him an address. When they arrive, they refuse to pay.
3. Johnny promises to donate an empty building he owns to a school for autistic children. The school has outgrown is present location and is looking forward to occupying the building Johnny has promised to give them. After the school sells its present building, and before they can move in the new building, Johnny gets a fantastic offer for the building and sells it. The school sues, but Johnny contends there was no consideration given by the school, so there could be no enforceable K.
4. Johnny sends Lisa a written contract for the sale of a puppy and gives her until Friday to agree. Lisa mails a written acceptance that is postmarked on the Thursday before the deadline. Johnny receives the acceptance after the deadline.
5. Johnny sells Lisa a washing machine and tells her that “this one’s a real beaut” and “is in his eyes the best in class by a mile”. Lisa buys the machine, but later discovers that the brand Johnny sold her received the worst score on quality from Consumer Reports magazine.

Answer 1

Answer

1. Johnny sees Smith walking down the road and offers to take him home for $5. Smith agrees. There is no written agreement.

1. Enforceable Contract. This is because it can be performed within a year or less. Also, there is an agrrement- offer and acceptance.

2. A group of students downtown Friday night flag down a cab. The cab stops, they get in, and the driver asks them where they are going. They give him an address. When they arrive, they refuse to pay.

2. Enforceable Contract. There is an agrrement- offer by the cab driver to drop and acceptance by the group of students to sit.  

3. Johnny promises to donate an empty building he owns to a school for autistic children. The school has outgrown is present location and is looking forward to occupying the building Johnny has promised to give them. After the school sells its present building, and before they can move in the new building, Johnny gets a fantastic offer for the building and sells it. The school sues, but Johnny contends there was no consideration given by the school, so there could be no enforceable K.

3. It is an Enforceable Contract as a promise to donate/ charity is also a legal contract as an agreement existed in the first place.

4. Johnny sends Lisa a written contract for the sale of a puppy and gives her until Friday to agree. Lisa mails a written acceptance that is postmarked on the Thursday before the deadline. Johnny receives the acceptance after the deadline.

4. Not an Enforceable Contract. Since the acceptance was received by Johnny after the due date, they did not enter into a legal agreement at the first place itself.

5. Johnny sells Lisa a washing machine and tells her that “this one’s a real beaut” and “is in his eyes the best in class by a mile”. Lisa buys the machine, but later discovers that the brand Johnny sold her received the worst score on quality from Consumer Reports magazine.

5. Not an Enforceable contract. The legality aspect of a contract is missing as a fraud (namely false representation of facts) has been committed.