A contract is an irrevocable consensus involving two or more parties in a written or verbal form recognized by the law if there is a breach. In case of breach of a contract, the complaint must prove to the judge the elements showing the existence of a contract between the parties. A court only enforces legally binding contracts with essential elements between two or more parties.
The first fundamental element of a contract is an offer. An offer is a written or verbal agreement where one party promises to take action or hold back from performing defined measures shortly in the future (Parvizimosaed 2020). For example, Jim and Laura offered to pay a deposit of $100,000 to hold the blue 4-door sedan car for a day to Stan Salesman. Without any written document, he guaranteed that amount paid was refundable, getting both parties into a sound and binding contract.
The second element of a valid contract is a consideration. Both parties get into a contract by agreeing on an advantage in a trade-off for the defined action. A Consideration could be in the form of money, a promise to do some service, or a consensus not to take a particular action. For example, Stan Salesman agreed to take the deposit of $100.00 and promised to hold the car for a day for Jim and Laura. The third element of a contract is accepted, where the offeree agrees to the defined terms of the offer without any alteration—indicating that both parties must understand the specified terms of a request. Stan, for example, agrees to deposit $100.00 to hold the blue 4-door sedan car for a day for Jim and Laura.
The fourth essential element of a sound contract is legality. The fundamental rule of the court is that an illegal contract is not enforceable (Cerchia 2021). A mentally incapacitated person and a minor are not regarded as competent and cannot engage in an irrevocable legal contract. Therefore, agreements between such people become void, but it remains voidable. Additionally, particular contracts are unenforceable for being against public policy and immoral. In the example scenario contract between Stan salesman with Jim and Laura is enforceable in a court because it was legally binding, and the parties were in full consent.
In the case scenario of Jim and Laura with Stan, I would decide that there is no contract for purchasing the automobile. The initial terms of the offer were that Jim and Laura deposit $100.00 to Stan Salesman at a local car dealership to hold the blue 4-door sedan car for one day. Stan ought to return the $100.00 as they had agreed that the amount was a refundable deposit to hold the specific automotive for a single day, not part of purchasing deposit for the car. Jim and Laura had not contracted to purchase the automobile and are entitled to have the deposit amount paid previously.
Jim and Laura are eligible to file a lawsuit against the local car dealer on the ground of breaching a contract. The contract was sound because there was evidence of elements of a valid contract. Stan Salesman got into a verbal binding agreement when he accepted the offer of $100.00 as a deposit to hold the blue 4-door sedan car for only that particular day. Stan considered the deposit of $100.00 enough value to hold the car for a day, not sell it. Stan guaranteed the offeror that the undocumented deposit was refundable, to which both parties, in full consent, agreed.
The verbal agreement between Jim and Laura with Stan Salesman made the contract legal, irrevocable and enforceable in court. Jim and Laura requested to have the deposit back from Stan because they decided not to buy the car. Stan insisted that Jim and Laura meant the paid deposit of $100.00 to be part of the purchase they had contracted to buy. He resulted in a total breach of contract on the offeror’s terms initially offered to Stan, which his full consent accepted. Jim and Laura need to file a case suit against in court to have the $100.00.
Jim and Laura paid the deposit on the agreement to hold the car for a day and were refundable upon request. They had not contracted to purchase the car using the deposit of $100.00 as Stan insisted and had the right to be refunded the amount as agreed during the payment. Court of law would help Jim and Laura claim their deposit back from the local dealer instead of paying for the blue 4-door sedan car.
Contracts essentially govern the society in carrying out businesses during the transfer or exchange of property or jobs between two or more parties. In numerous ways, human interactivity is mainly grounded in a string of agreements among individuals. When one party violates the terms of a contract, there must be consequences for breaching the terms. A disagreement is settled through mutual dissent among the affected parties or the court to bring the matter to a solution where the dispute occurred.
References
Cerchia, R. E. (2021). A comparative viewpoint on illegal contracts: In favor of flexibility and proportionality. Global Jurist, 21(2), 447-479. Web.
Parvizimosaed, A. (2020). Towards the specification and verification of legal contracts. 2020 IEEE 28th International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), 445-450.