Law Case

INTENTION TO CREATE LEGAL RELATION

Intent in contract law can be referred to as, having the intention to form a legal contract, it is not sufficient for two parties to be involved in a contract, they must intend creating a legal aspect. It is possible for an agreement to exist, but for it to be legal there needs to be legal intent.

SOCIAL & DOMESTIC AGREEMENT

In family and social arrangements it is difficult to suggest that the legal intent would become contracts because of the domestic arrangement are usually made by family members who would not have the intention to be legally bounded such as between husband and wife’s agreement. In social situations there may be an offer, acceptance and consideration, to do something for something in return but there may not be anything that legally binds that agreement. Therefore:

1) In social and domestic agreements the law raises a presumption that the parties do not intend to create legal relations.

Jones v Padavatton [1969] 1 WLR 328

This case, like Balfour V Balfour 1919, demonstrates that domestic arrangements, however complex, are presumed not to create contracts, unless there is clear indication to the contrary. Unlike the earlier case, however, the complexity and precision of the arrangements in this one meant that the facts had at least to be considered, rather than being dismissed as “outside the realm of contracts”.

Facts- Mrs Jones offered to pay for her daughter, Mrs Padavatton, to study law if she (the daughter) left the USA and came to England. She did this. The mother then bought a house in London which the daughter lived in; her maintenance was payed from the rents of other tenants.

Eventually mother and daughter fell out, and Mrs Jones took action to reclaim possession of the house. It was ruled that although the circumstances were such that she could not have done this if the tenant had been anyone other than her daughter, there was no evidence to show that the case overruled the...