Law for Business Management

LAW FOR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Answer 1)
Part (a)
The English Law governs the matters of the contracts in England and Wales. The Contract
Law is a branch of Law that governs the relationship, validity and interpretation of an
agreement and the overall administration of the contracts. The common law states the
definition of contract to be the voluntary agreement created by the parties among themselves
that is enforceable in law. The contracts can take either the oral or the written form. The law
has prescribed a range of essential characteristics that leads to the establishment of a valid
contract.
The first two essential conditions of a valid contract are the existence of offer and acceptance.
An offer refers to the willingness of one of the parties to establish a contract. It is imperative
to note that for a valid offer to be made, the same must be communicated as held in the case
law of Entorres v Miles Far East1. In addition the offer must contain the certain terms and the
one which are exact as pronounced in the case of Scammell and Nephew v Ouston2. The
provision of the acceptance to the offer leads to the creation of an agreement between the
parties. Apart from this, the acceptance too must be absolute, that is it must be on all the
terms mentioned of the agreement. The next vital condition of the creation of the contract is
that the same must be supported by the consideration. The consideration means the price
given in exchange for goods or services or the performance of an obligation under the
agreement. It is comprised of either any of the following or combination of the interest,
profit, right, detriment, benefit, or forbearance, as held in the renowned case law of Currie v
Misa3. It is vital to note that the said price is usually in the monetary form, but the same can
be of any form that has a value. It is essentially to be noted that the payment of consideration
must be from the parties to the contract itself and not through the third parties. In addition to
the above mentioned key elements, the yet another chief element of contract is the intention
of the parties to create a legal relationship. The parties in the question must intend to be
bound by the legal actions and thus a distinction is made in between the contracts and the
social agreements or decisions reached in context of the family dealings.
Thus, it can be stated if all of the above mentioned conditions are present, a valid contract
would be stated to be formed.
1 Entorres v Miles Far East [1955] 2 QB 327
2 Scammell and Nephew v Ouston [1941] AC 251
3 Currie v Misa (1875) LR 10 Ex 153

Part (b)
Issue: The issue in the given case scenario is to analyse whether there is a liability for the
payment on the part of Ringo towards Paul.
Rule: It is imperative to note that by the virtue of the intentions of the parties to create legal
relations, the parties can sue each other for the enforcement of the terms of the contracts.
There has been a presumption of nonexistence of the legal intention when the parties to the
contracts are the family members, as stated in the popular case law of Jones v Padavatton4.
However, the law prescribes the certain conditions which lead to the belief that the contract is
not the social contract. These conditions are that if the agreement is in a written form, or there
has occurred a separation among the parties or when there is a third party involvement in the
contract. Thus, in the presence of the said conditions, it can be evidenced that the contract is
not a social contract and therefore the necessary element of intention to create legal relations
is present.
Application: On application of the above stated rules to the given case scenario, following
points are noteworthy. There is no written agreement between Paul and Ringo regarding
mowing the lawn at home. In addition to this, there is no involvement of the third party in the
said agreement. Further to state, the mentioned parties in the case law are not separated.
Thus, the vital conditions for the agreement to not be called as social contract are not
satisfied.
Conclusion: The discussions carried on above, with respect to the rules and application
thereon to the case study lead to the conclusion that the agreement between Paul and Ringo is
that of purely a case of the social contract, because none of the rebutting evidence is evident.
Hence, Ringo has no liability of payment to Paul regarding mowing the lawn.
Answer 2)
One of the essential branches of the torts law is that of negligence. The negligent conduct is
referred to as the conduct where an individual has failed to act in a manner comprising of a
reasonable prudence and usually consists of omissions where an act was required. In order to
establish a case of negligence in the given case scenario, Jerry would need to satisfy the
following four essential conditions, as was prescribed in one of the most popular case laws of
4 Jones v Padavatton [1969] 1 WLR 328