Contracts Outline | ID 31562 | Rutgers University, Camden School of Law

Introduction
–         Contracts – the law of obligations that arise because of an express or implied commitment, in particular, a promise. You voluntarily agreed to enter into this promise so the law will see to it that you keep your word. A contract is a legally enforceable promise (RSd2 1)
–         Elements of a K claim:
o       Existence of a K
o       acceptance
o       P satisfied all conditions on his end
o       Breach of K
o       Causation
o       damages

Part I – What promises should the law enforce – the doctrine of consideration

1.                  Donative promises, form and Reliance
a.     Simple donative promises
                                                               i.      Simple Donative Promises – promise to make a gift for affective reasons such as love, friendship or the like.
                                                             ii.      General Rule – simple donative promise is unenforceable because there is a lack of consideration, (something bargained for and received by a promisor from a promisee that which motivates a person to do something) you need to have a sufficient bargain. i.e. you cannot enforce a gift that someone is giving to another with nothing in return.
·        Four concerns that lead the systems to treat a given transaction type as unenforceable
1.      Evidentiary – desire to protect both the citizen and the courts against manufactured evidence and difficulties resulting from insufficiencies in the available proof.
2.      Cautionary – safeguarded against the individuals own rashness. The promisor might have been feeling especially nice at the time of the promise.
3.      Channeling – the enforceable obligation needs to be marked off or signalized so to ensure awareness that his action may have legal significance
a.       Depends on the assumption that actors will know contract law.
4.      Deterrent Policies – unwillingness to enforce transaction types considered suspect or of marginal value.
                                                            iii.      See Dougherty v. Salt. Held that the promise was not enforceable because the note by the aunt to his nephew lacked consideration since it was for past behavior.
1.      Consideration (RS2d 71) is when a performance or return promise is bargained for; it

. Conditional Donative Promise – if the promisor intends to confer a gift on the promisee but the nature of the gift is such that some condition must be fulfilled before the gift is made (ex – A tells B that she will give B her TV if he comes over to her house to get it). A conditional donative promise is no more enforceable than any other donative promise. This is true even if the condition has been fulfilled, except to the extent that the fulfillment of the condition constitutes foreseeable reliance.
Conditional Donative Promise v. Bargain Promise – difference is that in conditional the fulfillment of the condition is not the price of the promisor’s performance. The test is how the parties view the condition. If the condition is viewed as simply a necessary part of making the gift, the promise is donative. But if they view it as the price of the promise, there is a bargain and the rules applicable to bargains apply.