Module 6 Case Study

.docx

School

Southern New Hampshire University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

206-R1080

Subject

Law

Date

Jan 9, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by BailiffStraw12431

Jake Holley Southern New Hampshire University Module 6 Case Study

Contractual Element In order to have a legally binding contract, the contract needs to have 6 elements with those elements being: offer, acceptance, awareness, consideration, capacity, and legality. The area that the contract was missing in regards to Lucy v. Zehmer is within the scope of contractual capacity. Contractual capacity is the ability of an individual to enter into a binding legal contract. (Team, 2022). In the case of Lucy v. Zehmer, the defendant Mr. Zehmer believes that this contractual capacity is missing due to the inebriation being present during the conversation and there being alcohol during the time of the “contract” being signed. Mr. Zehmer was under the assumptions that it was friendly banter and joking back and forth during the time of which alcohol was being consumer which limited Mr. Zehmer’s state of mind. Mr. Zehmer also believed that the contract was being talked in conversation in jest and not taken seriously at the time. This also provides another missing element being Signatory Awareness. As stated above, the defendant, Mr. Zehmer was not in the state of mind to make an official agreement or be in the spatial awareness to understand it was being made into a lawful contract. Court Ruling and Reasoning With the original conversation and contract taken to trial court to have the plaintiff enforce the contract, the decision and ruling was in favor of the defendant Mr. Zehmer. This provides a contest in favor of Mr. Zehmer. The original ruling was then appealed by the plaintiff, Mr. Lucy with the hopes of getting the deal back on track or a different outcome. With both parties providing facts for their cases, more information was brought up. Information of if jesting was occurring it would be about payment being made that night. With this new information, the judge reversed the initial ruling to be in favor of the defendant, Mr. Lucy. This decision was made by the judge understanding the conduct of Mr. Zehmer was of a serious nature and not being jest.

Leading to the nature of Mr. Zehmer being open to the contract where a signature was done to conclude that meeting/conversation. Agree or Disagree I do not agree with the overall reversal of this case. The conversation was under false pretenses with the plaintiff being around alcohol for an undisclosed amount of time before the defendant had struck up the conversation. The Defendant’s motives are questionable and could be cause for malicious intent to get the farm. In the intro of the case study, it details that the defendant has been trying to buy the property for years without any luck. If a baby was being sued, there would be just cause as to why the baby is not of sound mind just like someone who is under the influence. If the deal was to be done properly, I believe there should have been a witness/moderator in order to maintain professional conduct. This would have provided an account if the deal was to have fallen back on either party. Entering Into a Contract The personal experience of being in a contract and not viewing it as a binding agreement would be a previous job/verbal agreement with a startup company. The company was to focus on youth that are in at-risk communities/experiencing poverty. I was hired/brought on to use my experience with youth to help guide the company since the co-founders did not have work experience with youth. It was a verbal agreement between the cofounder and me to do work for free until money started coming into the non profit to pay for my services. I was told the paperwork was done properly however when I started looking into the 501c3 license for grants, someone that was an old ex was on the paperwork stating sole ownership of the LLC. Arizona is a state that bases verbal agreements as a contract without the formalities. While considering this

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help