Elements of Law of Contract

Question: Discuss about the Elements of Law of Contract. Answer: Introduction: Individuals who are employed as police officers do not cease to have the power and authority conferred upon them by virtue of the employment, they carry their police powers within their respective jurisdiction 24 hours a day, irrespective of the fact that they are on duty or not.Sometimes these police officials are hired to exercise their powers off duty, when private firms contract with them to provide security services at particular instances. The contracting with police officials is desirable as they carry their training and powers along with them wherever they go. For providing these services the entity which hires them for providing special services which ado not form part of public duty, is liable to pay charges for the services rendered by them. House of Lords by majority of 3 to 2while determining the question whether the police officers are entitled for extra pay for rendering special services, held that there was nothing illegal in the agreement between the parties to the suit in seeking recovery of 2200 by superintendent of police for providing mobile force in order to efficiently secure the colliery, nor was the agreement void for want of consideration. It was affirmed that it is the fundamental obligation of the police to maintain law and order for which they are paid through general taxation. Viscount Cave L.C. held that the police officers were under unconditional obligation to maintain law and order, and the public pays for the same through taxation and it cannot be called upon to make extra payment for the public services rendered by the police. But in circumstances wherein the services are rendered upon the request and with the view to meeting the wishes of the person asking for the same apart from those which the y deem fit at that instance, then the services are entitled to be treated as special services and the police officers have a right to charge for the same, irrespective of the fact that there existed a contact or not. The promise to pay would be implied under those circumstances. In the present matter at hand the Vice Chancellor had requested for wants two police officers on duty on the dance floor and a stationary police van at the campus and for the same Sergeant Ratty had advised that an extra cost would have to be paid. The services provided by the police officers was a special services distinct from that of the ordinary obligation for maintain law and order, restricting crime. By accepting the services of the police the university has impliedly consented to the payment of extra cost for the special services rendered by the police officers. The principle laid down in the judgment of Glasbrook Brothers Limited. Vs. Glamorgan County Council would be applicable to the case at hand. Hence the university is liable to pay the amount of $5000 as mentioned in the invoice. Has a legally binding contract been made between Mr. Dowell and Dodgy Accounts Associates? Contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties.The English common law provides for existence of three essentials elements, which give rise to obligations enforceable and recognized by law. The three basic essentials are existence of an agreement, intention to enter into legally binding relationship and consideration. The standard and traditional approach to contract law states that all contracts require there to be an offer and an acceptance. Offer and acceptance form part of an agreement.Offer is a specific proposal made by offeror to offeree, either to give or to perform something, with an intention to be binding if accepted by the person to whom it is addressed. Offer is said to be communicated when it reaches the offeree. An acceptance is an unequivocal statement made by the offeree to accept the offer. An offer must be communicated to the offeree, otherwise it would be impossible for him to accept it.Acceptance of the offer should be absolute and without qualifications, and the acceptance should be with regard to the offer made. An offer accepted with conditions other than those set out in the offer, is not a valid acceptance and gives rise to a counter offer (request for further information does not amount to counter offer) which can either be accepted or rejected by the offeror, and at the same time the original offer lapses which can be restored only at the consent of the parties. An acceptance must be communicated to the offeror. Acceptance is made when it is dispatched to the offeror, and at the time when the acceptance is dispatched contract comes into existence. The parties to the contract must agree upon the terms of the contract in the same sense.An offer when accepted becomes a promise. Another essential of contract is the intention of the parties to enter into a legally binding relationship.A contract does not come into existence until the parties intend to be bound by the terms of the contract. The third essential of a contract is consideration. Sir Frederick Pollock defined consideration as an act of forbearance of one party or the promise there of, is the price for which the promise of the other is brought and the promise thus given for value is enforceable. Consideration is required to form simple contracts. Consideration must be sufficient, lawful, and definite but it need not to be adequate and should not be illusionary. The essence of contracts being enforceable is that, they induce reasonable expectations. If the promisor promises to perform then it gives a hope to the promisee that it would be performed and in case of breach it causes a sense of deprivation. In the legal parlance this deprivation is compensated by payment of damages on the basis of psychological and monetary losses. The legally binding character of the contract gives an opportunity to the promisee to seek remedy in case of breach of contract, wherein a contractual relationship exists between the parties. In the present matter at hand Mr. Welwisha had send the information to Mr. Dowell by telegraph stating that the management committee has decided to appointed him as the senior accountant of the firm. In the light of the above mentioned essential ingredients to constitute a contractual relationship between two or more persons an offer should be made by the offeror to the offeree and acceptance should be made in correspondence to that offer, but Mr. Welwisha did not make an offer to Mr. Dowell to be appointed as the senior accountant, there was mere communication of the information, and Mr. Dowell sent his acceptance in correspondence to the telegraph which disclosed the said information and not with respect to the offer which was not received by him. There was no express or implied intention on the part of Mr. Welwisha to enter into a legally binding relationship. Therefore it is pertinent to note that as the essentials of the contract have not been fulfilled in the instant case, henc e no contractual relationship between Mr. Welwisha and Mr. Dowell. Herein no contractual relationship exists between the parties, so the doctrine of reasonable expectation would not be applicable. References Australian contract law, Agreement, https://www.australiancontractlaw.com/law/formation-agreement.html Catharine MacMillan and Richard Stone, Elements of the law of contract, (University of London,2012)13-52 Dena Valente, Enforcing Promises: consideration and Intention in the Law of Contract (Bachelor of Laws (Honours) Dissertation, University of Otago, 2010) Geoff Monahan, Essential contract law, (Cavendish Publishing (Australia) Pty Limited, 2001)5-21 Glasbrook Brothers Limited. Vs. Glamorgan County Council [1925] AC 270 Networked Knowledge, Contract law lecture-Formation of contract-offer and acceptance, https://netk.net.au/Contract/02Formation.asp Quora, When local police / sheriffs are hired as security for a private organization are they still legally police officers or are they security guards?, https://www.quora.com/When-local-police-sheriffs-are-hired-as-security-for-a-private-organization-are-they-still-legally-police-officers-or-are-they-security-guards Reading, Common law elements of contarct, https://sielearning.tafensw.edu.au/MBA/19194J/commerc_law/lo/u5_t2_commonlaw/u5_t2_commonlaw_02.htm Practical Law, Contract, https://uk.practicallaw.com/books/9781845921620/chapter04#SLASG-ch04-UID5 ThinkProgress, The incredible powers of off duty cops, https://thinkprogress.org/the-incredible-power-of-off-duty-cops-d0d3435aba3f#.c6hbo1mdg