Remedies and Legal Position in Contract Law

This report discusses the remedies available in contract law for breach of contract and the legal position of parties involved. It explores the case of Raymond and Samantha, where Samantha failed to pay the full amount owed to Raymond. The report also provides advice for Samantha on resolving payment disputes and maintaining good business relationships.

Essay
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
A contract is legal document which binds two or more than two parties to enter into
agreement. It is legally enforceable as it met requirement of law. Basically, there are 4 elements
of contract that are agreement, capacity, consideration and intention (Beale, Rutgers and
Vogenauer, 2019). A contract is breached when any party fails to fulfil their obligation or terms
and condition mention in contract. It may result in taking legal action against it by considering
remedies. Also, it require to do negotiation with party in case of solving issue or dispute. In this
report it will be described about remedies, legal position of Raymond and advice given for
Samantha.
MAIN BODY
Advise Raymond on possible remedies available to him
From case study it has been analysed that Raymond has entered into contract with
Samantha to prepare some drafts for total sum of £800. But Samantha could only pay 200 to him.
However, Samantha accepted payment as final settlement (Cartwright, 2016). But there are
several remedies which is available to Raymond that he can be chose. It will enable him to
recover his full amount as his fee. Moreover, use of remedy depends on type of contract done by
both of them. Thus, remedies are described as below :
Damage – It refers to money paid by one party to another. It is legal remedy in which has to be
paid. Furthermore, there are various types of damages in it such as compensatory, incidental,
consequential, nominal and liquidated. Compensatory are those in which party has to compensate
for value that was not done. Whereas incidental damage is loss incurred in order to minimize loss
of flows from contract breach. Consequential damage incurs when non breaching party without
action on their part because of breach. Nominal are those which non breaching part has suffered
no loss.
Specific performance – In this promisor has to obliged to enter into contract. It is alternate to
damage as it is issues by court but consists of various exceptions in it.
Injunction – It is second remedy in which court direct a person to stop doing what they must not
do. A promise made by one person has to fulfilled when enter into contract (Smits, 2017).
Restitution – This type of remedy is given when contract is avoided due to incapacity or
misinterpretation. So, a party may breach contract to seek restitution breached. Basically, it
means restoring what is given by one party to other.
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Quantum meruit – The remedy occurs when one party contract is prevented from finishing their
performance of contract by other party (Hsiao, 2017). Then, party can claim quantum meruit.
Thus, these are some possible remedies available to Raymond that he can opt for. It will
enable in getting paid for his work that is being done in contract. Along with that, with help of
remedy it will enable Raymond to get paid £800 and claim remaining balance.
Would your answer be any different if Samantha had paid Raymond the £200 three weeks
earlier than the debt was actually due, and Raymond had agreed to this?
It is found that Samantha was not able to pay full amount of £800. So, she was having
due debt of £600 towards Raymond. When Samantha would have paid £200 3 weeks early than
it would change overall situation of it. Yes, in this case the answer would have been different
because here it is found that Samantha has paid Raymond £200, 3 weeks earlier and also he had
agreed to it. Thus, it clearly shows that Raymond has agreed to take amount of £200 and this
state that contract is terminated (Macaulay, 2020). Besides that, Samantha paid due left within 3
weeks which means she is not liable to pay for any amount in future. Here, no legal action needs
to be taken by Raymond as he has received the amount before due date.
In contract there is an element known as acceptance. Thus, in case it is clearly seen that
when Samantha offered amount of £200 to Raymond, he accepted offer. Hence, it shows that
contract is terminated with acceptance of Raymond. So, answer will be different as no further
claim can be made by Raymond. Other than this, there would not have been claim made in future
by Raymond as he is already being paid £200.
What would be the legal position if Raymond had requested a £400 payment from
Samantha as full and final settlement?
It can be evaluated from case study that Raymond has agreed to work for Samantha for
£800. But due to lack of funds Samantha paid £200 only and Raymond agreed for it as final
settlement. However, it can be identified that legal position of Raymond has been different when
he requested for £400 payment (Pargendler, 2018). It is because in contract it is written that
Samantha will pay £800 to Raymond for completing her work. In this case Raymond could have
took legal action against Samantha in case of non payment of full amount. Besides that,
Samantha needs to pay full total £800 to him as mentioned in contract. Furthermore, in that case
court might have issued order to Samantha regarding full payment. Therefore, he was having
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right to take legal action against Samantha in order to get full payment of it. Also, for making
final settlement Raymond can consider any amount below £800 as mentioned in contract.
Hence, it can be said that the legal position of Raymond will be different because as in
contract it is mentioned sum of £800 to be paid for work. But Samantha only gave £200.
Therefore, Raymond can claim up to £800 depending on his choice for final settlement. Also,
court would have given result in favor of Raymond because contract made is legal. He would be
having a strong legal position for getting £400 payment from Samantha as full and final
settlement (Pereira, 2019).
What advice do you have for Samantha?
It is necessary to give some advice to Samantha so that she is able to give due payment to
Raymond. Also, it will be useful in not taking any legal action by court in favor of Raymond.
Hence, advice for Samantha is as below :
She can take legal advice from any lawyer or legal consultant that in such case what to do. So,
there will be various options available to Samantha by which she can proceed in legal way.
She can do negotiation with Raymond in case of payment of claim or dues. In this case it will not
require any legal proceeding to take against Raymond. Here, Samantha can give some time to
Raymond for claiming of due payment (Savelyev, 2017).
Another advice is that Samantha can also take legal action against Raymond as he has already
accepted cheque of £200 as full settlement in it. Therefore, she is not liable to pay full amount as
contract is already been terminated by both parties. This is because it is found that Raymond has
accepted cheque of £200 from her.
Samantha can make full and final settlement to Raymond so that in future her image is not
spoiled. This will also allow her to work with Raymond in future as well by entering into
contract (Schulze, and Zoll, 2018).
Hence, these are some advice that can be followed by Samantha in which she can do
negotiation with Raymond regarding due amount. It will in keeping good image of her and also
dealing with other businesses in legal way in future. Samantha needs to ensure that all things
regarding contract are clear and then negotiation is done as per it.
CONCLUSION
The report concludes that there was a legal contract between Raymond and Samantha. But
due to some reason Samantha was not able to pay £800 to him. There are various remedies
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available that are damage, specific performance, injunction, etc. The answer would have been
different because here it is found that Samantha has paid Raymond £200, 3 weeks earlier and
also he had agreed to it. Also, legal position of Raymond will be different because as in contract
it is mentioned sum of £800 to be paid for work. Thus, he is legally liable to get sum of £400
from Samantha. There is certain advice that can be followed by Samantha like negotiation,
making full payment in specified time period, taking legal advice, etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Beale, H., Rutgers, J. and Vogenauer, S., 2019. Cases, materials and text on contract law.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Cartwright, J., 2016. Contract law: An introduction to the English law of contract for the civil
lawyer. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hsiao, J.I., 2017. Smart Contract on the Blockchain-Paradigm Shift for Contract Law. US-China
L. Rev., 14, p.685.
Macaulay, S., 2020. The Impact of Contract Law on the Economy: Less Than Meets the Eye?.
In Stewart Macaulay: Selected Works (pp. 297-309). Springer, Cham.
Pargendler, M., 2018. The role of the state in contract law: The common-civil law divide. Yale J.
Int'l L., 43, p.143.
Pereira, J.C., 2019, April. The genesis of the revolution in Contract Law: Smart Legal Contracts.
In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Theory and Practice of
Electronic Governance (pp. 374-377).
Savelyev, A., 2017. Contract law 2.0:‘Smart’contracts as the beginning of the end of classic
contract law. Information & Communications Technology Law, 26(2), pp.116-134.
Schulze, R. and Zoll, F., 2018. European contract law. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co.
KG.
Smits, J.M. ed., 2017. Contract law: a comparative introduction. Edward Elgar Publishing.
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