Essay Paper on Contract Law and Uniform Commercial Law
Many contracts are set every day by most of the people – we do not even always pay attention that the contract has been concluded. But whether we are aware of this fact or not, all contracts are regulated by the legislation and can be enforced if there is some breach of the contract’s conditions. This paper is going to be devoted to the case study connected with the US contract law in general and concluding a contract between two companies in particular. Here, the status of the agreement between the two companies under discussion will be considered in order to define whether this contract is valid or not under contract law and under the Uniform Commercial Code of the USA in particular. Therefore, the situation is as follows.
The company which manufactures miniature windmills for sale to general public – Barnstorm, Inc. – needed some widgets for its mills and decided to refer to widgets manufacturer I.M.Best Manufacturing Company in order to arrange buying widgets from it. The result of the meeting of the representatives of both of the companies was the agreement to co-operate. According to the agreement, Barnstorm was going to purchase all widgets from Best each month in the course of six months. Although this was the only condition of the agreement – the widgets in exchange for some money and the agreement did not include either a method of shipment, specific quantity of the widgets or the price of the widgets which Brainstorm would have to pay.
Thus, two questions arise here. First, it is necessary to define the agreement under the traditional law of contracts in order to understand whether this contract is valid and can be enforced if needed. And second, this paper will have to estimate the status of the agreement under the Uniform Commercial Code of the USA.
To begin with, it is important to define the meaning of contract in order to be able to understand whether the agreement under discussion is a contract and whether it is legally valid.
In general, contract is considered to be a legally obligatory interchange of promises or a kind of an agreement between the parties which can be enforced by the law. The contract produces the obligation to perform or, on the other hand, not to perform certain actions. The parties of the contacts can be different: individuals as well as companies or corporations. The conditions for concluding a contract are the competence of the parties which enter the contract and mutual agreement by all the parties. Thus, according to this, the agreement between Brainstorm and Best can be considered a contract because the parties are competent for the reason of being two legally established firms and because the parties have concluded a mutual agreement on the process of delivering the widgets each month within the period of six months in return for some payment (as it is stated that Brainstorm is going to buy the widgets).
In order to be enforceable, the contract is supposed to put in paper as it is required to have the agreements in writing when they deal with sale of goods which are valued over $500 (or $1000 depending on the state). It is understandable that the price of the widgets provided to Brainstorm by Best is more than $500 or even $1000. Consequently, this agreement had to be set in paper so that it would be enforceable – this is the condition for all serious deals defined in the US Statute of Frauds. From the case study it is not very much clear whether the agreement was in written form or set up orally. So, if the agreement has been made orally it can be considered an oral contract or an informal exchange of promises and thus cannot be enforced if necessary.
Also, this contract under discussion can be considered bilateral. “A bilateral contract is the type of agreement most people think of as a traditional contract – a mutual exchange of promises among the parties.” In this type of contract each party makes some kind of promise: in the case under discussion the promise of Best is to deliver the widgets, and the promise of Brainstorm is to pay something for it. And each party is also a beneficiary of a promise: Brainstorm receives the widgets (as Best promised) and Best receives the payment (as agreed in the contract).
Consequently, when we consider the agreement under discussion from the point of view of traditional contract law, it becomes understandable that the agreement can be considered a contract and even is defined as a bilateral contract. But if we envisage the enforceability of this contract it can be evident only after defining whether the agreement was written or oral. (But oral agreement does not always appear void.) Other issues such as breach of the contract and its enforcing will have to be contemplated only when the contract becomes operational…
This is just a free sample of the research paper, or part of the research paper on the given topic you have found at ProfEssays.com. If you feel you need professional writing assistance contact us! We will help you to create perfect research paper on any topic. ProfEssays.com – Leading custom essay and dissertation writing company and we are 24/7 open to serve you writing needs!
Don‘t hesitate! ORDER NOW!
Tags: essay example, free essay sample, law essay, sample essay