Contract law is a legally binding agreement between two or more people. A valid contract should have the following.
Offer. It is a proposal of one person to another on a certain thing. An offer usually has terms or conditions which are definite that if agreed by the person, the offer becomes accepted. Under the contract of CG and Cambridge city, the offer was given by the city to the CG to collect the garbage in the area of 3000 households for three years with the expectation of 1000 household growth in three years. The payment was $400000 a year.
Acceptance of the offer. After an offer has been made by the offeror to the offeree and the conditions are favorable, then the person can take the offer. By taking the offer terms an abiding agreement is formed. For instance, in this case, CG was given an offer with the conditions to collect garbage for three years at a fee of $400000 a year. CG accepted the offer
Consideration of the contract. The offeree does something or gives a promise to the offeror in a return for accepting the offer. Under consideration, both the offeror and the offeree benefit in one way or the other and the benefit must be of a certain value. Under this case, the CG would get $400000 in return for garbage collection services.
Alteration of the contract is changing the conditions of the contract by the agreement of both parties. When a contract is altered, the older contract becomes void and a new contract comes into force. Usually, a contract is altered to suit the parties or to create more benefit. Under this case, the alteration was needed to benefit both the CG and Cambridge city.
As per the agreement of CG giving services for three years with the expectation of 1000 households growing in that period the contract was formed. But after a year, the household growth was by 1000 which meant that the growth would be higher than expected. CG expected not to make a profit of $75000 as projected. A new contract is needed to be signed so that CG can benefit.
Frustration is when one of the contract parties fails to honor the agreement due to the occurrence of an unseen event and the other party, therefore, suffers frustration. In this case, the agreement was that CG should remove garbage for three years for $400000 per year. If CG failed to do so, then it would not have performed the promise. Likewise, if CG performed the service but Cambridge city failed to pay CG then CG would have suffered frustration and would have sued Cambridge for damages.
Novation occurs when the contracting parties go on with their duties to each other although a new agreement is made to replace the old one. CG could continue with the services it is giving to the city of Cambridge but they should agree otherwise on the payment as more households are coming in.
A breach of contract can occur when one of the parties completely fails to perform the promise or the performance is defective to the other party. Under this case, a minor breach could have occurred if, for example, CG hired another firm to collect garbage on their behalf. A material breach would have occurred if the performance of the contract would have cost the other party a financial loss or time wastage. A fundamental breach would have come if one of the parties failed to perform the duties leading to contract termination.
Lastly, an anticipatory breach would have occurred if one of the parties communicated to the other that it is not possible to perform the agreed work. For example, if after the contract performance for one year, CG communicates to Cambridge that it will not carry out the services because the payment seems to be below, then CG would have breached the contract for not honoring the promise.
Damages are payments by one of the parties that have broken the contract to the other. Damages are usually given so that the party affected by the breach is left in a position that the person would have been if the contract was not breached. If Cambridge fails to pay CG the agreed money, the CG can file a case of breach of contract and claim to be paid the money. On the other side, if CG failed to perform the contract, Cambridge would have sued them and claimed either the service to be completed or payment of financial loss suffered by them from CG (Halson13).
CG can opt to breach the contract by informing Cambridge city that it will not be possible to perform the agreed work for three years. This option will be good if CG finds it is better to break the contract and pay the damages later than to perform the said work. The other option is for both of the parties to alter the contract. CG had agreed with the offer by foreseeing a 1000 household growth within a year. The contract for the first year brought a profit of $75000 to CG.
With the expectation of more growth in the other two years, CG predicts a loss. Therefore both parties need to agree again on new terms. CG should alter the contract and come to an agreement with Cambridge city on a contract that is beneficial to them. If Cambridge refuses to alter the contract, CG should revoke the contract. If Cambridge sues CG over the breach, it is most likely that CG will be directed to perform work for the remaining time but over an increased fee.
CG had projected a growth of 1000 households in three years. CG would have managed this risk by not being specific on the growth number. CG would have agreed with Cambridge that in case of growth of more than 1000 households the fee would be increased.CG would also have managed the risk by bargaining with Cambridge to pay for the household service rather than an area. If CG was to charge based on each household, then the growth would have been handled because it is Cambridge which would approach CG for contract alteration.
CG is a company formed by Jillie and Spencer. As the law defines, a company is a legal person separate from the owners. If a company enters into a contract and breaches it, then it is the company to be sued not Jillie and Spencer.
Tort is an act of one person to another in which there is an injury suffered. A tort is usually compensated with monetary damage. In the case of jack and Jill, Jeff suffered an injury in which he lost his tooth because of the fight caused by Jack and Bob. The concert delay and lack of enough security contributed to bob to be rowdy. The damages that Jeff is to receive are monetary to compensate for the medical expenses and any other cost that would have resulted because of the accident (Harlow 9).
Negligence is the act of failing to give the act of care to the person entitled to that care. In this case, Panhandle Productions were negligent to the funs for not starting the concert on time making the funs drink excessively. Secondly, Panhandle Productions was responsible for the rowdy crowd because of the dark and noisy situation that could have been avoided if the concert started on time. On the other hand, Secure Ltd was negligent by not proving enough security in the concert as per the expectation. If the security was enough, the fight between Bob and Jack could have been stopped in time to avoid injury (Harlow 9).
Occupier’s liability is a law that gives them a duty of care to a third party or entrants who either visits or trespasses a property occupied by somebody else apart from the real owner. The Panhandle Productions had rented Metro Centre for the concert performance and therefore the production company was reliable for the safety of the concert funs that it had invited. Nevertheless, Production Company was not reliable for the injury suffered at the concert because it was the duty of Totality ltd to give enough security, but out of their negligence to contain the crowd a fight broke out (Harlow 10).
The message at the back of the ticket was protecting the Metro center. Since Metro center is the owner of the concert place, the contract signed makes Panhandle Productions owe visitors the duty of care. Metro center is not reliable for any damage caused by the negligence of the occupiers since the time of the injury Panhandle was occupying the place.
Risks should always be avoided in any way. In this case, the three parties were not able to avoid the risks. Metro center could have ensured that Panhandle was able to take control of the situation before signing the contract. Panhandle on the other hand was supposed to ensure the timely start of the contract. It is good for the metro center to insure the place so that any risk suffered by the third person or the property is offset.
Agency law is a legal situation whereby one party (an agent) gets orders to act or perform duty on behalf of another party (principal). Metro center signed a contract with Panhandle production to perform a concert on their behalf. As the agent’s law dictates that if in case of a breach of duties by the agent, the principal in most cases becomes liable for the damages. Therefore, in this case, the metro center could be responsible for the injury.
The first law concerns the formation of the business. This law outlines all needs or recommendations a business needs to operate. For example, a partnership act gives guidelines for a partnership. The partnership business always operates strictly on the Acts requirements.
Consumer protection legislation protects the consumers from consuming defective goods from the businesses. The government ensures that the consumer is protected by checking the quality and quantity of the goods through bureau standards.
Employment rules guard the business employee against being misused. The business is supposed to take care of its staff, give good remuneration and ensure workers’ safety when on duty. For example, an employee may get injured by one of the machines when on duty, the business is supposed to pay the hospital bill of the employee. If the business fails to do so, the employee can sue the business over the breach of the law (Halson28)
The rules are important to the business because they define to what extent a business should exercise its operation. The relationship of the business and the other parties is also defined which clarifies the rules and rights of each party’s way of working together in the right way.
The rules are in practice and work very well. For instance, if a company enters in business not defined in the memorandum with another party, the company is said to act outside its objectives and can be sued. In most cases, employees through trade unions have fought for their rights within the business. Commodities sold by the businesses to the consumers are put to the mark of quality by the government to ensure the goods are good for use.
The rules can be improved by ensuring putting in tight measures to the business to ensure that the purpose of the business formation is strictly followed. To do this the government should issue operating licenses to the businesses. The government should also educate both the consumers and the employees on the rights they have from the businesses.
Although it is good to inform the consumers and the employees of their rights, some of them would be so ignorant of the certain situation making the business continue with violation of their rights. As the government tightens the business formation law, some of the businesses will find a loophole to operate illegally.
Works Cited
Halson, Roger. Contract law. UK: Longman publishers, 2001.
Harlow, Carol. Understanding tort law. London: sweet and Maxwell publishers, 2005.