SIMULATED ESSAY EXAM CONTRACTS
Betty is a physician. One of her patients was an elderly man named Al. Betty treated Al for Alzheimer’s dia, but since she believed he was destitute, she never charged him for her rvices.
One day Al said to Betty, “I want to pay you back for all you have done over the years. If you will care for me for the rest of my life, I will give you my office building. I’m frightened becau I have no heirs and you are the only one who cares for me. I need to know now that I can depend on you.” Betty doubted that Al owned any office building, but said nothing in respon and just completed her examination of Al and gave him some medication.
Two years pasd. Al’s health worned and Betty continued to treat him. Betty forgot about Al’s statement regarding the office building.
One day Betty learned that Al was indeed the owner of the office building. Betty immediately wrote a note to Al stating, “I accept your offer and promi to provide you with medical rvices for the rest of your life.” Betty signed the note, put it into a stamped envelope addresd to Al, and placed the envelope outside her front door to be picked up by her mail carrier when he arrived to deliver the next day’s mail.
Al died in his sleep that night. The mail carrier picked up Betty’s letter the following morning and it was delivered to Al’s home a day later. The rvices rendered by Betty to Al over the last two years were worth veral thousand dollars; the office building is worth millions of dollars.
Does Betty have an enforceable contract for the transfer of the office building? Discuss.
Simulated Essay Exam Contracts
Grading Guideline
Does Betty have an enforceable contract for the transfer of the office building?
I. Applicable Law: Service contract, so common law governs.
II. Contract Formation (75% total)
A. Offer (25%): Requires prent intent to be bound, definite and certain terms and
identifiable offeree.
1. A showed prent intent by saying, “If you care for me for the rest of my
life, I will give you my office building”; terms are certain and definite
becau price is value of building in exchange for caretaking for rest of
A’s life; and B is identifiable offeree. Thus, there is an offer.
2. Lap of Offer
a. Offer may be terminated by offeree’s failure to accept within time
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specified in offer. If no deadline, then within reasonable time.
b. Here, facts indicate that a short deadline was intended since A said
he “needed to know now,” and B never verbally accepted.
c. B accepted in writing two years later, and A’s estate has strong
argument that the offer lapd, unless B accepted by another
method.
3. Lap by Operation of Law
a. Offer terminates by death of either party.
b. If B did not accept prior to A’s death, then offer lapd by
operation of law.
c. Issue is whether B accepted prior to A’s death.
B. Acceptance (25%): Unequivocal asnt to terms of offer made by one with
power of acceptance.
1. Unilateral Contract: Only full performance is acceptance.
a. Offer did not specifically say it may be accepted by performance
only, so probably would not be deemed unilateral.
b. Even if deemed unilateral, B accepted by full performance.
c. However, issue is whether B intended to accept by performance or
provided rvices gratuitously becau she did not believe he
owned the building.
d. If B fully performed without intending to accept, then no valid
acceptance of unilateral contract.
2. Bilateral Contract: Can be accepted by either promi to perform, or
beginning of performance.
a. B began performing by caring for A; again, issue is whether she
intended to accept, since she did not believe he owned the
building. Strong argument that there was no acceptance.
b. Mailbox Rule: Acceptance effective upon dispatch.
1) B attempted to accept offer via stamped letter placed by her
door to be picked up by mail carrier; letter not in mailbox.
2) Issue is whether her action constituted “dispatch.”
a) If dispatch means letter had to be placed inside
mailbox where it would be irretrievable, then no
acceptance here becau A died prior to pick up.
This analysis is more likely to be correct.
b) If dispatch only means letter addresd, stamped,
and put in place for mailman to pick up, then
有余数的除法acceptance did occur.
3. Implied in Fact Contract: Formed by manifestations of asnt by conduct.
a. Express oral or written asnt may not be necessary if B’s conduct
manifested asnt to enter into contract.
b. Here, problem is again whether B’s conduct was gratuitous.
C. Consideration (25%): Requires bargained for exchange of legal value
1. Gift: Not effective as consideration.
a. A’s estate argues that B merely bestowed gift, and B not induced
into providing care in exchange for office building.
b. If no mutually induced consideration, then no contract.
好像的近义词2. Past or Moral Consideration
a. Promi in exchange for something you have already done is not
effective as consideration.
b. A’s statement that he wanted to “pay you back for all you have童年的发现
done over the years” to B indicates he is giving B the building for
past rvices, which is not sufficient consideration.
c. But, A’s statement that, “If you care for me for the rest of my life,
I’ll give you my office building,” indicates building was offered in
exchange for future care, which does constitute valid
consideration.
3. Adequacy of Consideration
a. Building worth much more than value of B’s rvices.
b. However, consideration need not be same value on each side.
III. Defens (25% total)
A. Statute of Frauds
1. Contracts for rvices that will take longer than a year and contracts for孕妇能吃大料吗
sale of real property must be in writing and signed by party to be charged.
Thus, this contract will be barred by SOF.
2.Exception: Lifetime Services:However, exception to SOF where contract
is for lifetime rvices, becau person may die within a year. Becau this
is a contract for lifetime rvices, it falls under exception.
B. Lack of Capacity
1. Contract voidable if party’s mental capacity so deficient that he is
incapable of understanding nature of agreement.
2. A had Alzheimer’s, but facts indicate A understood he did not have
children to care for him and knew he had office building, which tends to
show he had capacity.
C. Unilateral Mistake
1. If only one party is mistaken, contract can still be formed.
2. B was mistaken about A’s ownership, but that will not prevent formation. III. Conclusion: Contract likely not enforceable becau no valid/timely acceptance, but if court finds valid formation, the defens will fail and the contract will be enforceable.新婚大门对联
NOTE: Students should pay attention to the specific things that A said. In a bar question, if there is any dialogue in quotations, it means something and should not be overlooked. Here, everything each party said should be ud in the discussion and analysis. Also, note how many times the fact that B doubted A owned the building is ud in the analysis, and the fact that A’s first statement about paying B back for past rvices can be ud to argue that past consideration is no consideration, while his statement that if she will care for him for the rest of his life he will give her the building can be ud to argue for valid consideration. The are all facts that should not be ignored.
This is an example of a question where the issue spotting and analysis is more important than the conclusion, and veral of the issues can be concluded either way. The correct way to grade a question which has alternate correct analys/conclusions is to award credit where the issue is correctly framed, and the analysis and conclusion are consistent with each other.
The correct law to apply is the common law. Students do not need to go into much detail explaining that common law applies, but if they start talking about or applying the U.C.C., they are clearly on the wrong track.
SIMULATED ESSAY EXAM CONTRACTS
SAMPLE ANSWER门开
Betty v. Al’s Estate
Applicable Law
Common law governs contracts for rvices. The contract is for caretaking rvices. Thus, the common law will apply.
Contract Formation
A valid contract requires an offer, acceptance, and consideration.
Offer
An offer requires a prent intent to be bound, definite and certain terms, and an identifiable offeree.
Here, Al’s prent intent is evidenced by his statement to Betty, “If you will care for me for rest of my life, I will give you my office building.” Moreover, his concern about not having any heirs to care for him and the fact he needs to know “now” if Betty will accept his offer evidences his prent intent. The terms are certain and definite as the price is the value of one office building in exchange for the value of caretaking rvices for the remainder of Al’s life. It can be argued that the specific type of rvices was not defined, and thus no offer was made for lack of certain terms. However, since Betty had been caring for Al for a number of years, it can be inferred that he was bargaining for the same rvices that Betty has been providing him with for years. Lastly, Betty is an identifiable offeree.
Thus, there is an offer.
Lap of Offer
An offer may be terminated by the offeree’s failure to accept within the time specified by the offer or, if no deadline was specified, within a reasonable period of time. It can be argued that since Al specified that he “needed to know now,” the period of time to accept expired on the day of the offer or a very short period thereafter. Here, Betty never verbalized her acceptance. She did finally reduce her acceptance to a writing approximately two years after the offer was made. Al’s estate has a strong argument that two years exceeded the time to accept. Thus, unless Betty accepted by some other method, the offer lapd. Whether Betty accepted within the “now” time frame by performance is more fully discusd below under acceptance.
高考易错成语
Lap by Operation of Law
An offer is terminated by the death of either party. Further, the death need not be communicated to the other party. Here, if Betty did not accept prior to Al’s death, then Al’s offer terminated when he died. However, if Betty did accept prior to his death, then the offer was not terminated. As analyzed below, Betty likely did not accept the offer prior to Al’s death. Thus, the offer terminated by operation of law due to Al’s death.
