This being law class in good humor I Harrison Osle am hereby not held responsible for the outcomes of any results on any exams I am not in any way tied to Florida State University or Professor Stauber This study guide is simply all of my class notes and common knowledge simplified into a study guide Good luck and remember to review your own class notes as well Contracts a legally enforceable agreement Class notes pg 70 102 K in the law means contracts The diagram with the K in the circle of the Agreements shows that contracts are legally enforceable but are also a part of Agreements By legally enforceable it means that I could go to court and get a remedy if a contract is not honored what is an agreement It is differenty from a contract because it is legally enforceable what kind of agreement is not legally enforceable Selling drugs This is an illegal agreement because the activities are illegal Also SOCIAL agreements The clean hand clause You have to come into court that the remedy you are trying to obtain for breaking a contract with clean hands aka can t be illegal Social Agreements are like if I ask you out on a date and you don t show up I can t sue you over that because it is merely a social agreement Case A student at law school heard that someone knew she was cheating She made a contract with a hitman to kill staff person that knew she had cheated If the hitman had followed through and wasn t paid he couldn t have sued Case A boy cancelled on a girl for prom and she sued him for the price of the dress and the case was settled Sometimes cases like this are ruled for favorably in small claims court because they can be business agreements The ultimate social contract is Marriage You can go to court for all of these things post pre nuptual agreemrents etc Pre nuptual agreements can have anything in them like Catherine Zeta Jones had with her husband that paid her 5 million every time he was to cheat Essentials of a contract Agreement manifestation of mutual assent o The objective Theory of Contracts meeting of the minds o Case A seller promises to sell the buyer a horse for 2200 the buyer sends the seller a check for 2200 and the seller says that he wanted 2500 The seller says in his mind he meant to sell it for 2500 but accidentally wrote 2200 The seller quoted the manifestation of mutual assent This went to court and the buyer won o The Objective Theory of Contracts What you say and what you put down in writing means that the contract must go with what is in WRITING o HOWEVER remember that the law is not an enemy of common sense If in the same case the seller had left out the zero and sold the horse for 220 the contract would have been void because the law says that if the contract makes a mistake in which the buyer should known that it is a mistake then the contract is void o Obligation legal duty Types of Contracts Express agreement manifested in words oral or written In law you are allowed to have an oral contract as long as it in words Implied agreement manifested by conduct dental appointment o Let s say a dentist agrees to fill your cavity and on the way out you are charged 500 you say this is bullshit I m not paying that you never told me that s how much it cost And the dentist says well you never asked The dentist would win this because by sitting down you implied you agreed to this However In an implied contract all the terms of the contract are impliedly reasonable therefore if the dentist was to charge you 60 000 to fill a cavity you are protected because you would bring in the charges of what it costs on average to fill a cavity Bilateral and unilateral o Bilateral Promise for promise Il give you money if you give me a book o Unilateral promise for action il give you money if you find my dog as opposed to me giving you money for promising to find my dog o Executory not yet performed in terms of a contract or agreement o Executed completely performed Elements of a Valid Contract Mutual Assent Offer and acceptance Consideration the bargained for exchanged Usually Il give you money if you give me land etc or a trade works too Capacity How capable you are of making a contract You have to be Old Enough Usually 18 except when buying alcohol ha Sane Enough You can t be crazy Sober enough You can t be high or drunk or both Legality Offer must be legal o Offer if you make an offer you are an offeror if you are being given an offer you are an offeree Offer has following elements A promise to render a stated performance in return for the requested counter performance Promissory language requirement Must have the following said I promise to buy I will buy o o o I hereby undertake the obligation to buy Effect of equivocal language avoid ambiguousness Essential terms must be certain Avoid ambiguous language Don t say things like I ll buy some of something be specific Promise must be communicated under circumstances which manifest present serious contractual intent If I say Im going to give you a million dollars for hooking up with a girl I don t actually have to give it to you Case A bar said we ll pay 5 if someone came in with a formidable tshirt had something with a formidable event on it aka Woodstock shirt It would have been 55 This kid came in with a shirt of the Magna Carta which was 765 years ago and asked form 3825 the bar lost because their offer said IN WRITING that if someone came in with a big event on their shirt they would pay 5 for every year This was a serious offer Termination of Offer Contracts can be null by following things Expiration of time specified o If no time specified offer terminated after a reasonable time based on totality of circumstances o Sometimes things have expiration dates like sale coupons Rejection express refusal counter offer conditional acceptance o Rejection is effective when received by offeror Revocation you are allowed to do this as long as the offer is not accepted or a time contract o Offer is revocably at any time before acceptance o Revocation is effective when received by offeree Option Contract o Sell greenacre for 25 000 offer ends on 12 30 09 The buyer is not sure if he wants to buy it by the listed June case Buyer is not sure yet and he gets into an option contract Buyer pays 250 to have the option to have decision to take longer to decide A person who makes an offer can retract the offer any time before the date …