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The Case Of Lucy V.

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Page 180 1. In the case of Lucy v. Zehmer, the courts focus for upholding Lucy’s claim of assent, thus, establishing a legal and binding contract to purchase Zehmer’s farm for $50,000, was established in part due to the conditions of “objective intent” being met. The court discerned that Lucy’s objective intent was founded in the fact that Lucy had every intention of meeting the conditions of the mutually negotiated and accepted contract which was written and signed by both parties. In establishing the objective intent, the court only needed to look at whether or not the contract would be deemed as such by a reasonable person (Bethel University, 2011, pp. 178-179). 2. In order for the court to determine that a contract did not exist between Lucy and Zehmer, a few key indicators would have to be changed, the first of which is “mutual assent”. By definition, mutual assent is achieved when both parties come to an agreement by means of an offer and acceptance of said offer. If Zehmer had simply not accepted the offer made by Lucy then mutual assent would not have occurred, which would have resulted in the court being unable to establish that a valid contract existed between the two parties (Bethel University, 2011, pp. 178-179). Another fact, which could have resulted in an entirely different outcome, would have been for Zehmer to not have written anything down. Although in some instances a written agreement is not required in order to establish the existence of a contract, in

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