Contracts: Key Concepts Overview

Contracts: Key Concepts

• Contract Definition: Legally enforceable agreements creating private rights and duties, through mutual consent (whether oral or written).

• Key Contract Elements:

  • Offer: Proposal to create a deal.
  • Acceptance: Agreement to the offer's terms.
  • Consideration: Exchange of value (promise or item).
  • Legality: Contract purpose must be lawful.
  • Capacity: Parties must be adults of sound mind.
  • Consent: No deception or coercion involved.
  • Writing: Certain contracts (e.g., real estate) require written form.

Remedies for Breach

• Courts can provide remedies for contract breaches, including monetary damages or equitable relief like specific performance.

Types of Contracts

• Implied-in-Fact: Contracts formed through conduct (example: visiting a barber).
• Quasi-Contract: No actual contract, courts enforce restitution to prevent unjust enrichment.

How Contracts Are Accepted

• Bilateral: Acceptance is a promise.
• Unilateral: Acceptance is through performance.

Contract Performance Statuses

• Executed: Fully performed.
• Executory: Not fully performed.

Contract Validity Types

• Valid: Fully enforceable.
• Voidable: A party can cancel (e.g., due to fraud).
• Void: No legal effect (e.g., illegal agreements).
• Unenforceable: Valid contracts but cannot be enforced due to technical flaws (example: missing writing for real estate).

Contract Law Sources

• UCC Article 2: Governs the sale of tangible, movable goods.
• Common Law: Governs services, real estate, and intangibles.

Termination of Offers

• Lapse of Time: Offer expires.
• Revocation: Offeror withdraws.
• Death: Offeror or offeree dies.
• Rejection: Including counteroffers.
• Destruction: Subject matter is destroyed.
• Intervening Illegality: Purpose of contract becomes illegal.

Acceptance Rules

• Mirror Image Rule: Common law rule demanding acceptance mirrors the offer exactly.
• Mailbox Rule: Acceptance is effective when dispatched.

Consideration Fundamentals

• Definition: Something of value exchanged in a contract.
• What is NOT consideration: Gifts, past actions, pre-existing duties.

Consent Concerns

• Misrepresentation: Untrue facts influencing agreement.
• Fraud: Intentional deceit.
• Duress: Coercion through threats.
• Undue Influence: Unfair persuasion in trusted relationships.

Capacity to Contract

• Lacking Capacity: Minors, mentally incapacitated, intoxicated persons.
• Necessaries Exception: Exception for contracts concerning necessary items (e.g., food, shelter).

Statute of Frauds Requirements

• Certain contracts require written form:
  • Interests in land;
  • Agreements lasting over a year;
  • Paying another's debt;
  • Promises by executors;
  • Marriage-related contracts;
  • Sales of goods over $500

Parol Evidence Rule

• Prevents use of outside evidence to change the meaning of an integrated written contract, except in certain situations like clarifying ambiguity or proving fraud, mistake, or duress.

This quiz covers the key concepts of contracts, including definitions, essential elements, and legal requirements. It also delves into remedies for breach and various types of contracts, such as implied-in-fact and quasi-contracts. Test your understanding of these fundamental legal principles.