Exam 7: Contract Formation

If an offer does not specify a required type or form of acceptance, the offeree is required to provide a written acceptance for valid mutual assent to be proved.

You arrive at your final exam for your law class, and as you approach the door, your professor is standing at the door with a sign saying, "THE COST FOR TAKING THIS TEST IS $10 PAYABLE TO ME" (the professor). Your professor is also holding a tin cup for students to place their cash and checks into. Speaking entirely from a contract perspective, can your professor enforce such a fee? Explain fully.

In Leonard v. PepsiCo Inc., the court ruled against Leonard and refused to enforce the purchase of a Harrier jet because:

Consideration in a small or minimal amount that is written into a contract but never actually paid is called ________ consideration.

In Stevens v. Publicis, S.A., the courts addressed the statute of frauds issue of what constitutes a writing in today's cyber world and determined that:

A basic fact or assumption in a contract is said to be ________ to the contract.

Under most circumstances, acceptance cannot be imposed or inferred from an offeree's silence after receiving an offer.

In 1975, Denise purchased a used Volkswagen Beetle from Don. At the sale, Don produced a title to the car that said it was a 1972 car. In 1976, Denise sold the car to Ed, delivering a title stating that the car was a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle. Both titles were genuine and issued by the proper state office. In the 1970s, Volkswagen Beetles underwent essentially no body changes and, quite frankly, the cars were indistinguishable from year to year except to experts. When Ed takes the car to his mechanic for some routine maintenance, he is told that the car is actually a 1970, not a 1972, model. Ed immediately calls Denise and accuses her of fraud. Denise calls Don and is told that the car was indeed a 1970 car but he had replaced the motor with a new 1972 motor and had the car reregistered for the year of the new engine, an act which at the time was legal in their state. Has Don committed an actionable wrong? Has Denise committed any form of an actionable wrong?

Bud calls Lou and says, "I'll sell you my car for a thousand bucks, interested?" Lou says, "I'll look it up on the Internet. If the Blue Book price is close, I'll pay you $1,000 in the morning." At sunrise Lou shows up with $1000.

For the formation of a valid contract, the broad underlying requirement that the parties must reach an agreement using a combination of offer and acceptance and that the assent must be genuine is known as ___________ assent.

Dick has made a statement that the average person would realize is puffery. Dick is guilty of:

For a contract to be enforceable, it must meet the requirement of __________; that is, both the subject matter and the performance of the contract must be legal.

An option contract is a contract that gives one of the parties a choice of consideration to accept.

Hillary is a nerdy bookworm couch potato who rarely goes out of her home except to go to her job as a deskbound CPA. She wears a sweater almost every day, including during the summer, and is always complaining about being cold. Edmund, a co-worker, tells Hillary that he will give her $1 million if she climbs Mt. Everest. Edmund doesn't believe that she'd even give the offer a second thought. Hillary, without saying anything to anyone, starts an intensive training program to whip herself into shape, and six months later, during her vacation, she climbs Mt. Everest. Upon returning to work, she presents Edmund a picture of herself on the summit of Mt. Everest and demands her $1 million. Edmund tells her that they never had a contract so he owes her nothing, and Hillary claims that the money is owed based on promissory estoppel.

An offer may be terminated in all but which of the following ways?

According to the mailbox rule, a revocation is valid the moment that it is mailed.

Applying the parole evidence rule:

In the case Lucy v. Zehmer, the parties were two farmers who had been drinking whiskey in a bar and handwrote an agreement to sell Zehmer's farm for $50,000. Zehmer claimed that he was drunk and joking and never intended to sell the farm. What did the court decide, and what does this famous case establish about mutual assent?

Offers that the offeree partly performed or detrimentally relied on are:

If a 17-year-old enters into a contract to purchase a car, that contract is ________ at the minor's option until he or she reaches the age of 18.