Business Law and Ethics

BLE-214

11/24/2009

Takehome exam:

1)In the case “Harrington vs Harrington” we need to specify the elements of the contract which are the agreement, the consideration, contractual capacity and the legal object.

The first element of a contract is the agreement. The agreement consists of few elements like the offer, the termination of the offer and the acceptance. In this case Harrington senior, the offeror, made an offer to Harrington junior, with a clear intention to be bound because the offeror believes that if his son stops smoking for one year “he will kick the habit” which means his son may definitely quit smoking after this non-smoking year. The terms are definite and certain, if he stops smoking for the entire year his father will give him $5,000 as a reward of his action. The father made the offer to his son orally, he spoke to him directly without any intermediate.

The termination of the offer is made immediately by the acceptance of the offer by the offeree in this case Harrington junior. Harrington junior immediately accepted the offer and extinguishes his half smoked cigarette with the heel of his boot.

By extinguishing his half smoked cigarette and starting to stop smoking the offeree manifested a real intent to bound the contract. The action of the offeree communicates to the offeror a real intention to respect the terms of the contract.

This contract respects all the rules of consideration required to be respected in every contracts. The offeror’s reward of $5,000 is the consideration that his son son will receive for stoping smoking for one year. The offeree’s one year without smoking is the consideration that the offeror will receive in exchange of $5,000.

We also have to examine the legal capacity of the contract. The capacity is the third element of a legally binding contract. In this case both parties are over the age of majority and we assume that neither of them is suffering from mental illness or is an intoxicated person. The...