Contract Liability
Contract liability refers to the legal responsibility that arises from a breach of contract. When one party fails to fulfill their obligations as outlined in a contract, they may be held liable for any resulting damages or losses suffered by the other party. This liability is typically determined based on the terms and conditions specified in the contract.
5 Key excerpts on "Contract Liability"
eBook - ePub- Adolfo Paolini, Deepak Nambisan(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Informa Law from Routledge(Publisher)
...In other words, anybody who causes damage is obliged to make that damage good. That obligation may arise from two different sources: first, as a result of a breach of contract (“contractual liability”); and secondly, as a result of a failure to comply with the general duty of care not to cause damage to third parties (the resulting liability being termed “delictual” or “quasidelictual”). 2 We consider those two sources in turn. II. CONTRACTUAL LIABILITY 7.04 Where a contractual relationship exists between the parties, one can ascertain the extent of the wrong and measure the damage thereby caused by assessing what the parties promised to each other and were, therefore, entitled to expect. In civil law a number of principles of contractual liability have developed as follows: (a) Good faith 7.05 Contracts must be executed in good faith. 3 This abstract concept, difficult to define with clarity, imposes upon the parties the duty to act fairly and reasonable in performing their contractual obligations, from the early stages and throughout the execution of the agreement. The duty, therefore, embraces the process of contract formation, seeking to ensure that anybody who has given their consent to enter into a contract, in so doing, has proceeded with absolute freedom and willingness and with knowledge of the subject-matter of the contract. The concept may have a further role to play in that there is “good faith” when due care is exercised while performing a contract...
eBook - ePubBusiness Law
A Straightforward Guide
- (Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Straightforward Publishing Digital(Publisher)
...Ch. 1 BUSINESS LAW-THE LAW OF CONTRACT Underpinning all contracts are four main principles: 1) A contract is an agreement between the parties to that contract-one person makes an offer and the other accepts that offer 2) Both parties have an intention to be legally bound by the agreement-this is usually known as an intention to create legal relations 3) Parties to the agreement need to be absolutely clear as to the terms of the agreement – this is the main area of contention with contracts, as we will see laterc4) There must be consideration provided by each of the parties to the contract – this means that one person promises to give or deliver and the other promises to pay. The offer and the payment – either monetary or in kind - is the consideration. When making a contract, or entering into a contract all parties to the contract must have the legal capacity to enter into a contract. Very importantly, a contract, in most cases, does not have to be in writing – a piece of paper is not necessary, the agreement and evidence of that agreement forms the basis of contract. There are a few important exceptions, including contracts relating to interests in land (Law of property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989, s 2(1)) and consumer credit (Consumer Credit Act 1974). Other factors affecting formation include: • Form-the way the contract is created (e.g. the sale of land can only be made in the form of a deed) Form is an issue with specialty contracts but not with simple contracts • Privity of contract and the rights of third parties-generally a contract is only enforceable by or against a party to it, subject to exceptions and certain third party rights are now protected in the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. The nature of contracts – unilateral and bilateral contracts The majority of contracts entered into are known as Bilateral contracts. This quite simply means that each party to a contract agrees to take on an obligation...
eBook - ePub- Kenny Chin(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...4 Contract Law You should be familiar with the following areas: • the essentials of contract and the effects of the absence of them • rules relating to offer, acceptance and invitation to treat • use of postal and other means of communication on offer and acceptance • rules of consideration • distinction of legal intention to contract on domestic and social agreements • capacity of minors to make contracts and the effect of the Minors’ Contracts Act 1987 • discharge of contract by frustration and the effects of the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 • breach of contract and the remedies • consumer contract and related provisions under various statutes • duties of employer and employee, sex and racial discrimination in employment Introduction A contract is an agreement between two or more parties, who promise to give and receive something from each other and who intend that the agreement be legally binding. Except for some special contracts, for example, sale of a house, there is no general legal requirement that a contract has to be in writing. Verbal contracts are as enforceable as written contracts. The problem with verbal contracts is not on validity but on evidence. When nothing is recorded in black and white it is difficult to prove who has said what. Contract law is categorised in the law of obligation. A contract creates a legal obligation between the contracting parties. When one party has not fulfilled, or is not going to fulfil the obligation, he can be sued for breach of contract. The court will help the innocent party by either ordering damages suffered to be compensated, compelling the party in breach to perform the contract (specific performance order) or prohibiting the wrongdoer to act in a way which would cause further breaches (injunction order). It is therefore important to know how and when a binding agreement has been created...
eBook - ePubConstruction Contracts
Law and Management
- Will Hughes, Ronan Champion, John Murdoch(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...10 Liability in contract and tort Where a contract has been properly made, in terms of the criteria laid out in the previous Chapter, it then becomes necessary to identify precisely what obligations it imposes on the parties – that is to say, what terms it includes. This is because where any party fails without lawful excuse to perform fully and exactly a contractual obligation, that party is guilty of a breach of contract. In considering this question, what emerges is that there are three types of contractual term: those express terms which are contained in the main contractual document itself; those (also express terms) contained in other documents to which the main contract document refers; and those terms which are implied by law. In addition to those obligations created by a contract, a party may incur legal liability under the law of tort. The most important example of this type of liability is that based on negligence. 10.1 EXPRESS TERMS 10.1.1 Terms and representations Since English law does not as a general rule require a contract to be made in any particular form (see Section 9.2.6), it is in principle possible for the parties’ agreement to be spread over a number of documents, and even to include oral statements. Even where the parties have eventually signed a document described as ‘the contract’, it is open to a court to decide that this document does not paint a complete picture, and that the true contract consists of that document plus other terms. However, a court will not be quick to do this, for there is a presumption that a written document that appears to contain all the terms of a contract in fact does so. The result of these principles of contract law is the creation of some uncertainty regarding the status of a statement or promise made by one party to the other during the course of negotiations leading to the signing of a formal contract...
eBook - ePubIntroduction to Spanish Private Law
Facing the Social and Economic Challenges
- Teresa Rodriguez de las Heras Ballell(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...Chapter 7: Civil Liability 1. The role of civil liability in modern economy 1.1. Civil liability, contractual liability and liability ex delicto Liability embodies the binding of a person breaching a duty of conduct imposed in the interest of another person to compensate for damages. The foregoing generic formulation of liability divides into two kinds of liability commonly named contractual liability and aquiliana, civil, extra-or non-contractual liability. 315 The former entails the infringement of a duty of conduct set out in a contract. The latter involves the breaching of the generic duty neminem laedere, that is, the duty to refrain from any behaviour damaging anybody. Although both are rooted in the same foundations, a negligent or intentional conduct inflicting harm to another person, the rules governing each kind of liability are different, as stated by the Supreme Court in, among others, the judgment of 20 June 2006. Article 1089 Civil Code distinguishes among the sources of obligations, the law, contracts, quasi contracts, and ‘illicit conduct or omission or any behaviour involving negligence to any extent’. The core of the contractual liability regime is embodied in Article 1101 Civil Code, whereas Article 1902 Civil Code encapsulates the essence of extra-contractual liability. Notwithstanding the foregoing contention, the effects deriving from contractual liability and the extra-contractual one are still substantially different—limitation period, requirements, jurisdictional competence, limitation clauses. A disparity in criteria persists today despite the coherent and systemized attempts to unify both liability regimes, at least to a moderate extent as in the proposal led by Professor Yzquierdo Tolsada. 316 The assumed duality of legal regimes forecasts a tricky conflict in the case of concurrence of both liabilities. 317 Case law 318 has been oscillating, and doctrinal opinions thereon are multiple and conflict with each other...
