Is Silence gold? Law of school LLM program Hong Qiong Eid: 55184752 Introduction: There is a famous Chinese saying “silence is gold” which means silence makes someone benefit from it. But in Felthouse v Bindley case, we learned silence may be not “gold” (chances of making contract with other people). In the case silence means no communication of the acceptance by the offeree to the offeror in the circumstances that the offeror states that no need to reply for the acceptance. The case sets a rule that silence to an offer cannot generally be considered as acceptance. McKendrick states in his book, Contract Law: text, cases and materials ‘the general rule is that silence does not amount to an acceptance’ and the rule is a good one’ , he analyzes it further ‘the law would be burdensome if it imposed on people an obligation to take …show more content…
I agree with the statement that the general rule is a good one, but we should recognize that every rule has its exceptions; the analysis of McKendrick is based on that the rule will avoid unwanted contracts. Thus McKendrick’s comment is on bilateral contract, we will discuss the rule under the bilateral contracts circumstance. In order to make it clear, let’s first focus on why the rule is a good one. 1.The general rule “Silence cannot amount to acceptance” is really necessary in the modern economic society. If silence can amount to acceptance, the merchants can send the offer by saying “no reply with 10 days will amount to acceptance”, so we will be left in a situation to reply every offer that we don’t want to accept, just like McKendrick’s analysis, it will be “unduly burdensome”, and the social costs on this would be unaccountable. It is also unfair to impose an obligation to the offeree who doesn’t want to accept an offer but has to spend time and expenses to reject it. This is the
The Second Restatement of Contracts is very clear about the situations where acceptance is made by silence or exercise of dominion. Section 69 of the Second Restatement of Contracts provides, (1) Where an offeree fails to reply to an offer, his silence and inaction operate as an acceptance in the following cases only: (a) Where an offeree takes the benefit of offered services with reasonable opportunity to reject them and reason to know that they were offered with the expectation of compensation. (b) Where because of previous dealings or otherwise, it is reasonable that the offeree should notify the offeror if he does not intend to accept. (2) An offeree who does any act inconsistent with the offeror's ownership of offered property is bound in accordance with the offered terms unless they are manifestly unreasonable... Restatement (Second) of Contracts, §69. The core of the restatement is about the meeting of the mind and reasonableness, i.e. the implied consent or agreement by both parties. To sum up, this article clearly allows acceptance by silent action in the contracts of selling
In 2012, thirteen U.S. police officers fired a total of 137 bullets into a Chevy Malibu; the motorists inside were unarmed. Police brutality is a heavily debated topic, in the United States, its existence is the issue. There has been countless accusations of excessive force, also known as police brutality, throughout the years. Excessive force is the unjustified use of force to detain, control, and assault of any individual. Due to the Blue wall of Silence, insufficient training, unequal application of law, police culture, and the decrease of gun ownership, police brutality is on the rise.
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Rule : : Contract formation requires mutual assent (offer and acceptance), consideration, and no viable defenses to contract formation.
In week four’s theory practice, we reviewed the case scenario of Big Time Toymaker vs Chou in regards to determining the validity of a contract. As we’ve reviewed, an agreement or mutual assent is of course essential to a valid contract but the law imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of his words and acts. If his words and acts, judged by a reasonable standard, manifest an intention to agree, it is immaterial what may be the real but unexpressed state of his mind (Melvin, 2010).
The Blue Wall of Silence is an unwritten moral code, among police officers, that essentially states that no officer is to report any acts of deviance, brutality, corruption or misconduct that their fellow officers may commit. Those in law enforcement may see this unwritten rule as a form of brotherhood and honor. However, this wall of silence also acts as a wall of deviance, in which officers allow their colleagues to commit unlawful acts. Is there a specific line that has to be crossed to determine a “rat” from a police officer who is serving their duty and enforcing the law?
The following case American Agricultural Chemical Co. v. Kennedy & Crawford, 103 Va. 171 (Va.1904) it is expressed that; where the consideration for the promise of one party is the promise of the other party, there must be absolute mutuality of engagement, so that each party has the right to hold the other to a positive agreement. Both parties must be bound or neither is bound. A party making a promise is bound to nothing until a promisee, within a reasonable time, engages to do, or else do or begins to do, the thing which is the condition of the first promise. Until such engagement or such doing, the promisor may withdraw his promise, because there is no mutuality, and therefore no consideration for it.
In conclusion I think this rule would be so beneficial to not just me but to
Mutual assent and consideration go together so this paper will argue against them together. Mutual assent is the idea that all the parties in a contract know what they are contracting to and agree to it. As defined in Charles S. Knapp, Nathan M. Crystal, and Harry G. Prince’s Problems in
The offer and acceptance model is flawed- only an agreement is necessary. In order to fully comprehend this statement, we must first establish what constitutes and offer and what constitutes acceptance. “An offer is a statement by one party of willingness to enter into a contract on stated terms, provided that these terms are, in turn, accepted by the party to whom the offer is addressed”. Acceptance is “…an unqualified expression of ascent to the terms proposed by the offeror”. The “Offer and acceptance model” is based on the court’s adopt the “mirror image” rule of contractual formation. Applying the definitions stated above, we can take this to mean that there must be a clear and unequivocal offer which must be matched by an equally
Explanation sentence #2 (how does your second piece of evidence show the rule is important?):
In “A Silence that Kills” Lyndon Haviland expresses the idea that the public must confront the social inequities of tobacco use. Haviland believes the communities must communitcate a sence of urgency and engage all Americans in the battle against tobacco use. The author expresses her ideas thoroughly by concentrating on certain fact of tobacco use or second hand smoke affect, the epidemic in out current communities, the silence of the government, and the concern for public health. With the constant repetition of unity and a well-organized, concentrated article, the author easily captures the attention of the reader and the intended American audience. However, the author lacks information on
Some argue that corrupt police officers are simply the product of a corrupt culture of the agency they work for. These officers are socially introduced to a number of informal rules when they begin employment. This process and these rules serve two main purposes. First, this process is designed to minimize the chances of external or internal controls being mobilized to address the behaviors and, secondly, to keep corrupt activities at a level that is acceptable and likely undetectable. The rule most often referred to in this connection, is the “Code of Silence.” Officers are socialized into not cooperating with investigations regarding fellow officers. Whether or not the officer participates in corrupt activities for financial gain, an officer’s adherence to the “Code of Silence” places them squarely amongst the corrupt of the profession (Price, 1972).
Acceptance is a final and unqualified expression of consent to the terms of an offer. An offer may only be accepted by the person to whom it is made unless an agent is authorized to accept on behalf of that person. In addition, an acceptance must be made in the manner requested or authorized by the offering party. If the party to whom the offer is made
However, silence does not mean misrepresentation as contract is not valid as the agreement has not been communicated.