Business Law 1

Contract Elements Business Law is an interesting topic, especially when contracts are the subject of discussion. Contracts can obligate a party to perform a task, stop performing a task. They can be a guideline on a specific business sale or as simple as ordering something online. When things go wrong and contracts are claimed to be broken, the first thing we look into is whether it was a valid contract to begin with. For a contract to be considered valid there are 4 main elements it must contain. The first and most obvious element is agreement. Was there a valid offer and a valid acceptance? Having a valid agreement is at the beginning of any contract and without this first step a contract won’t exist. Second we examine, was there proper consideration? Something of value has to be exchanged between the two parties entering the contract. Third we consider capacity, was the party able to enter into the contract? This can range from a multitude of arguments from what age to mental health. The fourth element is legality, was the purpose of this contract legal? Simple, but what’s legal in one state maybe illegal in another. A contract is binding agreement that courts will enforce (Mann and Roberts). There are two types of classifications when referring to contracts. The first being expressed vs. implied. Expressed is written on paper or expressed through spoken word. A contract is not only considered valid if on paper almost all contracts are spoken word. Expressed contracts would usually require for a specific act to be detailed. It could either be simple or complex but both parties have discussed the details verbally or written. Implied, by the conduct of the parties is when nothing is written or said an example would be: walking into your local coffee shop where the merchant knows what you want, they give you your regular coffee and you leave the money on the counter nothing is said or signed. This is still considered a contract. The second classification is

Bibliography: Mann, Richard A. and Barry S. Roberts. Smith & Roberson 's Business Law, Fourteenth Edition. Ohio: South-Western, a part of Cenage Learning, 2009.