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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Fault That Lies Within Our Contract Law, George M. Cohen
The Fault That Lies Within Our Contract Law, George M. Cohen
Michigan Law Review
Scholars and courts typically describe and defend American contract law as a system of strict liability, or liability without fault. Strict liability generally means that the reason for nonperformance does not matter in determining whether a contracting party breached. Strict liability also permeates the doctrines of contract damages, under which the reason for the breach does not matter in determining the measure of damages, and the doctrines of contract formation, under which the reason for failing to contract does not matter In my Article, I take issue with the strict liability paradigm, as I have in my prior work on …
Mutual Assent Versus Gradual Ascent: The Debate Over The Right To Retract, Omri Ben-Shahar
Mutual Assent Versus Gradual Ascent: The Debate Over The Right To Retract, Omri Ben-Shahar
Articles
I ended Contracts Without Consent: Exploring a New Basis for Contract Liability with a reminder that the analysis was "lacking in rigor and in nuance" and that "[i]t remains for future work to explore the extent to which the approach developed. . . has the horsepower to resolve pragmatically the problems that have proven difficult for current doctrine and to examine whether these solutions advance the various social objectives associated with contract formation." Such "future work" arrived sooner than I expected. I have now had the privilege to read the three commentaries that the University of Pennsylvania Law Review solicited, …
Contracts Without Consent: Exploring A New Basis For Contractual Liability, Omri Ben-Shahar
Contracts Without Consent: Exploring A New Basis For Contractual Liability, Omri Ben-Shahar
Articles
This Essay explores an alternative to one of the pillars of contract law, that obligations arise only when there is "mutual assent "--when the parties reach consensus over the terms of the transaction. It explores a principle of "no-retraction," under which each party is obligated to terms it manifested and can retract only with some liability. In contrast to the all-or-nothing nature of the mutual assent regime, where preliminary forms of consent are either full-blown contracts or create no obligation, under the no-retraction regime, obligations emerge gradually, as the positions of the negotiating parties draw closer. Further, the no-retraction liability …
Forward [To Freedom From Contract Symposium], Omri Ben-Shahar
Forward [To Freedom From Contract Symposium], Omri Ben-Shahar
Articles
This Symposium explores freedom from contract. When I was preparing to travel from my home in Ann Arbor to the University of Wisconsin where this Symposium was to be held, my 9-year-old son asked where I was headed. I explained that a bunch of people and I were going to meet and talk about freedom from contract, but the boy seemed unsure what this exchange was going to be about. I tried to translate: "It is about making promises that you don't really have to keep." This sounded surprising to him. He raised an inquisitive brow, and I knew he …
'Agreeing To Disagree': Filling Gaps In Deliberately Incomplete Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar
'Agreeing To Disagree': Filling Gaps In Deliberately Incomplete Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar
Articles
Incomplete contracts have always been viewed as raising the following challenge for contract law: does the incompleteness-or, "indefiniteness," as it is usually called-rise to such a level that renders the agreement legally unenforceable? When the indefiniteness concerns important terms, it is presumed that the parties have not reached an agreement to which they intend to be bound. This "fundamental policy" is the upshot of the view that "contracts should be made by the parties, not by the courts."' When, in contrast, the indefiniteness concerns less important terms, courts supplement the agreement with gap fillers and enforce the supplemented contract.
The Tentative Case Against Flexibility In Commercial Law, Omri Ben-Shahar
The Tentative Case Against Flexibility In Commercial Law, Omri Ben-Shahar
Articles
Well-rooted in modern commercial law is the idea that the law and the obligations that it enforces should reflect the empirical reality of the relationship between the contracting parties. The Uniform Commercial Code ("Code") champions this tradition by viewing the performance practices formed among the parties throughout their interaction as a primary source for interpreting and supplementing their explicit contracts. The generous recognition of waiver and modifications, as well as the binding force the Code accords to course of performance, course of dealings, and customary trade usages, effectively permits unwritten commercial practices to vary and to erode explicit contractual provisions.
Contracts - Consideration- Requirement Of Consideration For Modification Of A Contract, David Macdonald
Contracts - Consideration- Requirement Of Consideration For Modification Of A Contract, David Macdonald
Michigan Law Review
Landlord leased space to tenant in a building which was to be erected. The agreement and subsequent modifications pro- . vided that the landlord should pay the broker's commission and architect's fees, and have the power to cancel the lease prior to a specified time. The litigation arose over another attempted modification in the form of a letter from the tenant in which the tenant promised to indemnify the landlord for the broker's commission and architect's fees if the landlord should cancel the lease as it had the power to do under the agreement. In compliance with the tenant's request, …
Real Property-Landlord And Tenant-Transfer By Lessee As Sublease, Not Assignment, John S. Slavens
Real Property-Landlord And Tenant-Transfer By Lessee As Sublease, Not Assignment, John S. Slavens
Michigan Law Review
X leased lands to plaintiff for a term of years, with a provision that if property truces were assessed against the property in excess of a certain amount, plaintiff would pay X a certain proportion of the excess amount as additional rent. Plaintiff then transferred his remaining term to defendant "subject to the terms" of the overlying lease. In addition, the sublease provided for a right to cancel the sublease if defendant failed to restore in case of fire or in the event of taking by eminent domain. Subsequent to the sublease, the tax assessments exceeded the amount stipulated in …
Contracts-Duration Of Indefinite Employment Contracts That Specify Period Of Pay, Paul E. Anderson S.Ed.
Contracts-Duration Of Indefinite Employment Contracts That Specify Period Of Pay, Paul E. Anderson S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Normally a contract which does not express a time for performance is treated as enforceable. The courts interpret it to require that performance be completed within a reasonable time, basing their conclusion on a presumption of the intention of the parties. However, in the area of employment contracts, an exception to the reasonable time rule has developed. An indefinite contract for services is generally held to be terminable at will. The questions that come to mind are two: What is" the basis for the unique treatment of employment contracts? What are the manifestations of intent that will defeat application of …
Landlord And Tenant-Lease Covenant Against Unlawful Business, Bruce L. Moore S.Ed.
Landlord And Tenant-Lease Covenant Against Unlawful Business, Bruce L. Moore S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
In an action to dispossess defendants of certain leased property, plaintiff alleged that defendants breached an express covenant in the lease by which defendants covenanted that they would use the premises for a store, and would not use the premises "for any unlawful business or purpose whatever." Defendants used the premises for a general mercantile store, operating under the trade name "Stop 'N Shop." In so doing, defendants failed to comply with a statute which provided that "It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in a business . . . under any name which does not plainly show …
Contracts-Release-Misrepresentation By Releasor's Attorney- Avoidance By Releasor For Unilateral Mistake As To Contents, Neil Mckay S.Ed.
Contracts-Release-Misrepresentation By Releasor's Attorney- Avoidance By Releasor For Unilateral Mistake As To Contents, Neil Mckay S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Under the objective theory of mutual assent, which bases the imposition of contractual obligations on the expressed intent of the parties, rather than on a subjective meeting of their minds, the law has generally granted relief to the signer of a contract who is under a misapprehension as to its contents only where he can show that the mistake was made without negligence on his part. The theory of affording relief in such a case apparently is that the instrument does not really represent the expression of the signer's intent, and the contract is, therefore, void at its inception. In …
The Assignment Of A Life Insurance Policy, Grover C. Grismore
The Assignment Of A Life Insurance Policy, Grover C. Grismore
Michigan Law Review
There is a great deal of uncertainty and confusion in the decided cases in regard to the effect to be given to the assignment of a life insurance policy. This is unfortunate, since to a large extent life insurance has come to be regarded as an investment medium, and as an asset which can be hypothecated by the insured in times of financial emergency.
Contracts - Arbitration And Award -Validity At Common Law Of Proceedings Void Under Arbitration Statutes, Edward H. Schlaudt
Contracts - Arbitration And Award -Validity At Common Law Of Proceedings Void Under Arbitration Statutes, Edward H. Schlaudt
Michigan Law Review
Defendant contracted with plaintiff to grade an athletic field. The contract required all questions subject to arbitration thereunder to be submitted to statutory arbitration at the choice of either party. A dispute arose and at the plaintiff's demand three arbitrators were selected as provided in the contract. Plaintiff sued to collect an award granted in his favor. Defendant objected that both the contract of submission and the proceedings fell far short of the statutory requirements. Held, though the parties agreed to arbitrate under the statute, the proceedings pursuant to the contract fell so far short of statutory requirements that …
Corporations - Corporate Seal - When Affixing Seal Makes The Instrument A Specialty, Edward D. Ransom
Corporations - Corporate Seal - When Affixing Seal Makes The Instrument A Specialty, Edward D. Ransom
Michigan Law Review
The plaintiff contracted to buy gasoline from a subsidiary of the defendant. The lengthy contract was signed at the end by the proper officers and in juxtaposition to the signatures were the corporate seals of both parties. The contract contained a recital of sealing. On a separate page, but attached to the contract, was a guaranty by the defendant of the subsidiary's performance. This also was sealed with the corporate seals of both parties adjacent to the signatures of the officers. No mention of sealing was contained in the guaranty. On default by the subsidiary, the plaintiff sued on the …
Damages - Applicability Of Gold Clause Resolution To Obligation To Deliver Gold Bullion, William J. Isaacson
Damages - Applicability Of Gold Clause Resolution To Obligation To Deliver Gold Bullion, William J. Isaacson
Michigan Law Review
Petitioner lessor and respondent lessee entered into a lease for the enjoyment in perpetuity of water power rights. The yearly rental was stipulated to be "a quantity of gold which shall be equal in amount to fifteen hundred dollars of the gold coin of the United States of the standard of weight and fineness of the year 1894, or the equivalent of this commodity in United States currency." In 1934, after the devaluation of the dollar by the Federal Government, the lessors intervened in the lessee's reorganization proceedings and filed a claim for rent. The petitioners requested that the lessees …
Contracts-Fraud-Rescission For Non-Disclosure Of Insolvency, Sheridan Morgan
Contracts-Fraud-Rescission For Non-Disclosure Of Insolvency, Sheridan Morgan
Michigan Law Review
Modern decisions have provided an important device for the protection of creditors through extension of the duty of disclosure by persons in extreme financial distress. The remedy chiefly used is rescission, which can be secured on the ground of "fraud," with restitution of property transferred in ignorance of the purchaser's distressed condition. The "fraud" need not consist of express misrepresentation of fact, though express misrepresentation often appears as an independent ground leading to the same result. The commercial importance of the remedies thus developed seems to justify consideration both of their practical consequences and of the theories on which relief …
Deeds-Instrument In Form Of Contract For Sale Of Land As Gift
Deeds-Instrument In Form Of Contract For Sale Of Land As Gift
Michigan Law Review
Decedent executed and delivered to his sister, the petitioner, in a sealed envelope an instrument in the form of an executory contract for the sale of land by the terms of which the decedent promised to convey to the petitioner his undivided two-thirds interest in a certain building and lot. The execution of the instrument was not the result of any agreement and no consideration was paid, although receipt of payment in full was endorsed on the back of the instrument. After decedent's death the envelope was produced and the probate court under a statutory authority ordered a conveyance to …
Partnership - Consideration For Contract - Illusory Promise
Partnership - Consideration For Contract - Illusory Promise
Michigan Law Review
D and his three daughters executed an agreement whereby each was to get an undivided fourth interest in all of D's property. The business under this agreement was to be conducted on a partnership basis. It was agreed that D should have complete control of the business and the right to issue only such profit as he saw fit beyond the actual need of the daughters. A demand note was given in 1918 by each of D's daughters without interest. The notes were renewed and the majority of the court agreed that it was the intent of the …
Conflict Of Laws-Contracts-Married Woman's Capacity
Conflict Of Laws-Contracts-Married Woman's Capacity
Michigan Law Review
Defendant, a married woman, domiciled in Idaho, entered into a guaranty contract in California with the plaintiff. In a bankruptcy proceeding brought against her in the district court for Idaho, she denied the validity of the obligation because it was not within the exceptions in Idaho law to the common law disability of a married woman to contract. Under California law the contract was valid. The agreement stipulated that it should be construed according to California law. Held, the capacity of the defendant to enter into the contract is governed by the law of California, the place where it …
Effectiveness Of Oral Contracts, Within The Statute Of Frauds, John B. Waite
Effectiveness Of Oral Contracts, Within The Statute Of Frauds, John B. Waite
Articles
In Morris v. Baron and Co., (House of Lords, 1917), 87 L. J. R. (K. B.) 145, plaintiff and defendant had entered into a contract of sale and plaintiff, as vendor, had delivered part of the goods agreed upon. Delivery of the remainder would have been a condition precedent to any recovery by the plaintiff. This contract, however, was followed by a second one, not in writing, whereby plaintiff was absolved from delivering the rest of the goods, but by which he agreed that he would deliver them if the defendant should so request. Thereafter plaintiff brought this action for …
Recovery Of The Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed, John B. Waite
Recovery Of The Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed, John B. Waite
Articles
In an action recently instituted by The General Electric Co. to recover on a contract to manufacture certain machinery for the defendant, which machinery the defendant had refused to accept, the trial court adopted the contract price as the measure of damages. The upper court approved this measure of damages, rejecting the argument that the measure should have been the difference between the market value and the contract price, and dismissed, as no longer appropriate to modern conditions, the decisions in Bement v. Smith, 15 Wend. (N. Y.) 493, and Shawhan v. Van Nest. 25 Oh. St. 490. The court …