Exam 7: Requirement of Consideration

John notices while mowing his lawn one summer day that while his neighbour had been on vacation, his hedge had become unkempt. Worried that people might think it were his hedge, John decided to clip the hedge himself. On his return John's neighbour thanked John for the work. Several weeks later the neighbour hired a handyman to do the same job and paid him $50. John would be entitled to payment for subsequent hedge clippings.

Alliston enters into an agreement with Berkley which, for $2,000, gives him the right to agree to purchase Berkley's screen printing business within the next 30 days for $50,000. If he decides to buy, they agree that the $2,000 will be the down payment on the purchase price. This agreement is an option.

When an offeree dies before accepting an offer, the offer does not lapse because the deceased's personal representative can accept an offer on behalf of a deceased person.

Busy Corp. sent a letter on January 12^th to Slow Co. offering to sell its main office building for $250,000, stating that its offer was open only until January 20^th, and it must have a response from Slow Co. by then. Slow Co. received the letter on January 14^th and prepared a letter of acceptance on that day, but had not posted it. The next morning Busy Corp. called and said that it had changed its mind and was withdrawing its offer.

Becky is colouring her hair one day and her friend Kamilah asks if Becky will colour hers as well. Becky agrees and does a good job. Two months later, Becky goes to a professional hairdresser to have her hair coloured and pays her $100. Becky should also be entitled to payment for her colouring job.

Karen offers to sell her antique rocking chair to her friend Julie for $350. Julie has always loved the rocker but, since she is currently short of money, she says to Karen "I will buy the rocker from you, and I'll pay half now and half next month." Don, who has been listening, says "I've always wanted that rocker, too, Karen. I'll pay you $400 cash right now for it."

If an acceptance is not unconditional, but changes the terms of the original offer, then it would have the effect of rejecting the original offer.

Rahul met Jones at a street corner and made a verbal offer to buy his canoe for $200. Jones replied that he would "think about it." Rahul nodded affirmatively. The two then went about their separate business. Later in the day, Rahul met Brown, who also had a canoe for sale, and Rahul offered to purchase Brown's canoe for $175. Brown agreed to sell Rahul his canoe. At 4 p.m. the same afternoon, after Rahul and Brown had made their arrangement, Jones telephoned Rahul to say he would accept Rahul's offer to buy his canoe. Rahul is not bound in contract with Brown because the prior contract he made with Jones became enforceable when Jones accepted his offer.

Giardetti, a retailer, placed an advertisement in a local newspaper on May 5^th that read: "Special Sale! New 16" portable TV set available for sale to the first 10 customers at my store on May 10^th at a sale price of $100 each. Regular price $199. First come, first served!" Don was the 10^th customer in the store on May 10^th, but Giardetti refused to sell him a TV set for $100. If Don had seen the notice on the shop door on May 9^th; he could still accept the offer, because the offer was irrevocable.

Discuss the significance of Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. [1893], 1 Q.B. 256 for modern day marketing practice. Give some examples to illustrate your points.

Paulette Paulson Furs advertises mink coats for sale at 30% off. The demand was much greater than anyone could have predicted, and 14 people who came to the store could not be provided with one of the sale coats. Since they had accepted Paulson's offer, she will have to find coats for them or be in breach of their contracts.

A contract is a legal relationship between parties. The existence or validity of the contract is measured by conditions outlined by law. An indication of the intention to create a contract is built on certain premises. These premises are:

Mario responded to an advertisement placed by Serge in a local newspaper. Serge was looking for business investments, and Mario sent him a letter on October 1^st which said that he was willing to make Serge a partner in his tie-dyed T-shirt business if Serge was willing to put up $5,000. Serge received that letter on October 6^th and wrote back the same day saying he would love to get involved in the business and would send Mario a certified cheque for $5,000 as soon as the bank had transferred the money from his savings account and certified the cheque. This letter was received by Mario on October 9^th, and the certified cheque was sent on October 8^th and received on October 12^th. Meanwhile, Mario mentioned the advertisement to Sonia, and she said she would like to get into the business and would be willing to put up $8,000. Mario sent another letter to Serge, on October 4^th, which Serge received on October 7^th, saying Mario had changed his mind and would not be willing to have Serge as a partner. a. What is the legal term for i. Mario's letter of October 1^st? ii. Mario's letter of October 4^th? iii. Serge's advertisement? iv. Serge's letter of October 6^th? b. Discuss whether Mario and Serge have a contract or whether Mario is free to enter into a partnership with Sonia. c. Suppose Mario's letter of October 1^st has said that there would be no commitment by him to any arrangement with Serge unless and until he received Serge's certified cheque for $5,000. Explain why this would or would not change your answer to (b).

Rahul met Jones at a street corner and made a verbal offer to buy his canoe for $200. Jones replied that he would "think about it." Rahul nodded affirmatively. The two then went about their separate business. Later in the day, Rahul met Brown, who also had a canoe for sale, and Rahul offered to purchase Brown's canoe for $175. Brown agreed to sell Rahul his canoe. At 4 p.m. the same afternoon, after Rahul and Brown had made their arrangement, Jones telephoned Rahul to say he would accept Rahul's offer to buy his canoe. Rahul's offer was merely an invitation to do business.

At a computer fair, Porter saw a demonstration by Maxwell of an excellent new accounting software package published by Slyckbyte Co., but he felt it was overpriced at $900. "At $500," he said, "I would definitely buy it." Maxwell said that she was not authorized to give deals to anyone, not even such a good customer as Porter. Porter bought another package from a different company. Four days later, he received a package from Maxwell that contained the new software and a letter which said that Slyckbyte was happy to give him the discount he had wanted and that she looked forward to receiving his cheque within the next few days. Discuss whether Porter must pay for the software.

Rahul met Jones at a street corner and made a verbal offer to buy his canoe for $200. Jones replied that he would "think about it." Rahul nodded affirmatively. The two then went about their separate business. Later in the day, Rahul met Brown, who also had a canoe for sale, and Rahul offered to purchase Brown's canoe for $175. Brown agreed to sell Rahul his canoe. At 4 p.m. the same afternoon, after Rahul and Brown had made their arrangement, Jones telephoned Rahul to say he would accept Rahul's offer to buy his canoe. Rahul's offer lapsed when Jones did not immediately accept the offer before the two parties departed on their separate business.

On June 1^st the Mega Marketing Research Firm sent out a mail survey to 5,000 potential customers of Mega's client company. The survey stated that everyone who completed the survey and mailed it back would receive a prize. Mega did not expect everyone to respond to the survey and had only 1,000 prizes on hand for the respondents. On July 14^th Sam mailed back his response and eagerly awaited his prize. On July 15^th Mega sent out the last prize it had. Sam's response arrived on July 16^th. It was the 1001^st and Mega wrote back telling Sam that unfortunately all the prizes were gone and he would not be able to have one.

Rosa offers Valerie the chance to buy her cottage for $25,000. Two days later, while Valerie is still considering the offer, Rosa's sister mentions to her that Rosa has sold the cottage to Ben for $30,000. If Valerie now accepts, Rosa will be liable for breach of contract.

Mary invites some friends to dinner and they accept. They purchase a much more expensive bottle of wine than they would normally drink and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Mary calls them two hours before the dinner to tell them she has been invited out by the man of her dreams and is postponing the dinner.

As you are walking out of class one night, you discover a notebook, full of equations, belonging to a professor in your school. You write a note telling him who you are and where and when you found it, and you drop the note in an envelope, into one of the university's internal mail boxes. The next day the campus is covered with notices which say "$100 REWARD. A notebook containing mathematical explanation of the meaning of life has been lost. If found, please return to Professor Doddering in Room A123."