Requirements of a Legally Binding Contract Under the English Law - Essay Sample

Introduction

Simon is a producer of TV talent show that is famously known as "You are hired." The primary purpose of this show is to bring various participants from different walks of life to compete for the role of being the CEO of his UK based Production Company. In the previous year, the advertising revenues, as well as the viewing figures, were disappointing. Therefore Simon decided to revamp the show. Kyle's cosmetic business has been successful. Based on the success of Kylie's business cosmetics, and understanding that she needs to go back to work after giving birth, Simon decides that he want Kylie's exclusive participation to be a mentor for the contestants. These contestants will attend the next season of the show. The fee that Simon is expected to pay Kyles for her mentorship program is PS5,000,000. Kylie has shown interest in accepting the job offer that Simon has, but she tells him that she will need a full-time nanny while working at the show. Therefore, Simon aggress to this provision as required by Kylie's and provides a full-time Nanny within the contract which is written according to the English law. Simon has agreed with Kylie. In regards to the English law, a contract is formed when two parties come together with the obligation of achieving certain goals (McKendrick 2014, p.65). As the legal advisor of Simon, there are various requirements of a legally binding contract that has to be observed.

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According to Bunni (2013 p.78), one of the requirements of a legal binding contract between Simon and Kylies under the English law is offered. An offer is a promise that one party offers to another party when entering into the contract. An offer that is provided during the contract should have certain qualities. Some of the qualities that should be found in an offer is that it should be specific. In this contract, the offer that Simon has made to Kylie is that he will look for a full-time nanny that will help to look after the child of Kylie. The second element is that the offer should be made with the intention of fulfilling it (Clarke 2013 p.65). According to this contract, Simon should ensure that he looks for the nanny who will help to look after Kylie's child so that she could mentor the contestants. Capable of acceptance is the other element that is associated with the offer. Simon should ensure that the offer that he makes to Kylie to look for a nanny that will easily be accepted. Therefore, as Simon enters into the contract with Kylie, he has to be keen on the offer that he makes to her and it should be specific, acceptable and will be bounded by acceptance.

According to English law, the second requirement of a legal binding contract with Kylie is acceptance. Acceptance is the last step before a contract is made and it ends up binding the two parties involved in a contract unless the other party within the contract agrees to change the terms of the contract later (Twigg-Flesner 2013 p.54). Furthermore, acceptance is the unqualified as well as final assent to an offer. In this case, Simon has to be keen on the offer that he is providing to Kylie. When Simon decides to offer to look for a nanny to help take care of Kylie's firstborn child, he has to be keen because when she accepts the offer, the contract will be bounded and he will have to fulfill this promise. In the event Simon fails to look for a nanny, he will face certain consequences.

Consideration is the third requirement of a legal binding contract under the English contract law. In an agreement, a promise cannot be given unless there is something which has been provided in exchange for it. Consideration is what has been provided in exchange for the promise (Wang 2014 p.45). Consideration during a contract does not have to be accurate, but it should have some value. However, consideration is not needed when an agreement is written in the form of a deed because it is a written document. As Simon is entering into the contract with Kylie, there has to be some consideration. In this case, Simon should consider that when he agrees to look for a nanny to take care of Kylie's kid, she will be available and will be ready to offer the mentorship to the contestants of the show. The consideration in this contract has value to both parties because Simon will benefit from the mentorship program while Kylie will have a nanny who looks after her baby.

According to Turner (2014 p.77), the fourth requirement of a legally binding contract is the form. The form refers to how the contract is presented. A contract can be presented in different ways that is formal and informal. Formal contracts are the ones which are written, and they have a supporting document. Informal contracts are agreements which can be made orally. Therefore, when Simon is entering into the contract, he should ensure that it is in written form so that there will be proof of evidence in case the other party breaches the contract.

The other requirement of a legally binding contract is the intention. According to the English contract law, two parties cannot enter into a contract without the intention of developing a legally binding agreement or with the aim of fulfilling the promises made. While Simon is entering into a contract with Kylie, he should demonstrate the intention of fulfilling the promises made or developing a legal binding agreement. This intention has to be mutual so that not only one person benefits from the agreement.

The last requirement of a legally binding contract under the English law is Certainty. The agreement has to be certain in that, and it should be complete and not lack essential terms which make the most important part of the agreement. This element means that the agreement should not be uncertain; for example, it should not be ambiguous or vague. Therefore, when Simon is getting into the contract with Kylie, he should be certain about all the important elements within the agreement to avoid any misunderstanding that may arise later.

Consequences of Breaching a Contract

When people enter into a contract, they are supposed to be bounded until all the obligations have been achieved. Every party within the contract is expected to stay within the requirements of the contract. However, it might reach a point when one of the party decides to get out of the contract. A contract that has been agreed by different people can be breached in various ways. According to the English law, one of the ways that a contract can be breached is when one of the party fails to undertake their obligations as stated in the part of the contract or who of it. The second way that the contract will be breached is when one of the party behaves in a way which shows no intention to perform what it is expected of them within the contract. The English contract law states that the other way that a contract can be breached is when the contract becomes hard to perform as a result of the act of the defaulting party. In the event one of the party breached the contract, certain consequences will be experienced. In the case provide, Simon has been bounded with the requirement of providing a full-time nanny to take care of Kylie's first born child so that she could help her with the mentorship program of his contestants. This agreement is contained in the contract, and when Simon breaches the contract by failing to provide the nanny to help Kylie while she is working at the show, some consequences will be experienced.

One of the consequences that will be experienced is that Kylie will stop to work at the show as a mentor (Wilkinson-Ryan, & Hoffman 2015 p.1269). Kylie has just given birth and has no one to help her to look after her baby. However, Simon wants her to help him in his show as a mentor, but Kylie requests a nanny so that she could have ample time to and work at the show. Therefore, when Simon fails to provide the nanny, Kyler will be forced to go back home to look after her child and stop work working at the show. Since the work of Kylie was to help mentor the contestants so that the viewing figures, as well as advertisement revenue, can be increased, these numbers will now drop because she is not in the show.

The second legal consequences that Simon is bound to face when he breaches the contract is to pay the punitive damages (Arbel 2015 p.369). Punitive damages is the money that is paid back by the party that violated the agreement. In this case, when Simon does not provide a nanny for Kylie to help look after her child, he will have to pay punitive damages because the contract has been breached.

Compensatory damages is the other legal consequences that Simon will face if he breaches the contract and fail to provide a nanny to look after Kylie's child (Thomas & Wright 2016 p.77). Compensatory damage is the amount of money that is paid to the party, and it is equal to what has been stated in the contract. When signing the contract, there is usually an agreement of the amount of money that will be paid by either party when the contract is breached. Therefore, Simon will have to face this consequence of paying compensatory damages when he fails to provide a nanny to look after Kylie's child as she works in the show.

The other consequence that Simon will face is to pay liquidated damages (Adriaanse 2016 p.141)). When the two parties entered into the contract, they might have agreed on the money that each one of the pays in case the contract is breached. In this case, Simon violates the agreement by failing to provide the nanny. AS a result of this issue, Simon will be required to pay the liquidated damages.

The last consequence that Simon is likely to experience is restitution. According to the English law, Restitution is a form of consequence whereby the one party pays the other party (Stone, & Devenney 2017 p.65). In this case, the party that breaches the contract will pay the other party. When Simon breaches the contract of providing a nanny to take care of Kylie's child, he will have to pay her as a form of restitution.

Conclusion

Concluding, a contract is a form of agreement that two parties enter, and they are bounded by the requirements stated. An example of a contract has been seen whereby Simon wants to hire Kylie to be a mentor for the contestants to revamp his show which has not been performing well over the past few days. There are various requirements that Simon have to consider when entering into this contract with Kylie. Some of the requirements is that there should be an offer, acceptance, consideration, intention, and certainty. Simon has to make sure that while he enters into the contract with Kylie, he is keen on these factors to avoid any misunderstanding that may arise. Once a person has entered into a contract, he or she has to perform everything that was agreed. However, it may reach a point whereby one of the party may go against what was accepted hence breaching the contract. In this case, when Simon fails to provide a nanny to take care of Kylie's child, he will have breached the contract. There are various consequences that Simon will face when he violates the agreement. One of the biggest consequences is that Kylie will have to stop working as a mentor and go back to look after her child since she has no nanny. This element means that Simon's company will experience a setback that will prevent it from improving. Other consequences that Simon will face when he breaches the contract is compensatory damages, punitive damages, restitution, and liquidated damages.

References

Adriaanse, M.J., 2016. Construction contract law. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Bunni, N.G., 2013. The FIDIC forms of contract. John Wiley & Sons.\

Clarke, M.A., 2013. Aspects of the Hague rules: a comparative study in English and French law.Springer Scie...