Consequences if Samantha had paid Raymond is the partly answer of the case study regarding a business law practice taken from a course like Business Law and Ethics.
Question
Breach of Contractual Relationships and Remedies
Raymond works on a part-time basis for a firm of accountants in its taxation department, but he also runs a small consultancy business, of which he is the sole proprietor, specialising in personal taxation advice. He entered into a contract with Samantha, a struggling artist, under which he agreed to prepare some draft business accounts for her,covering the last three years, for the sum of £800. Raymond completed the work, but Samantha told him she could only afford to pay £200 for the work. After a bitter argument Raymond reluctantly accepted a cheque for £200 from Samantha, which was stated to be in full and final settlement of the debt.
Shortly afterwards Samantha’s paintings began to realise very high prices and Raymond has just read in a newspaper that her latest work has been sold for £20,000. He now wishes to claim the balance of £600 from Samantha and approaches you for advice.
Required:
Requirement 1 Answer: Advise Raymond on Possible Remedies
2. Would your answer be any different if Samantha had paid Raymond the £200 three weeks earlier than the debt was actually due, and Raymond had agreed to this?
Answer:
Consequences if Samantha had paid Raymond the £200 three weeks earlier than the debt was actually due
By definition, contract is a legally enforceable agreement that happens between two parties. This is made when a party comes to another one and offers for a contract and another party accepts the offer. Once the party accepts and bounds with a contract, no annulment is possible (Halbert and Ingulli, 2016). If any party wants to revoke the contract, then it should be done before the formation of contract. To illustrate, Raymond made a contract with Samantha and worked his part according to the contract. But, Samantha paid £200 which was out of contract. If this decision was taken prior Raymond’s initiation of work, it would not have been an issue to revoke (Graw et al., 2017). Here, Raymond already has worked for three years, so for me if Samantha would pay him £200 three weeks prior than the debt was actually due, it would have been same as the present situation.
Routledge v Grant: This case can be explained in this way: Grant wanted to put his house on sale only for six weeks. After that, he withdraws the offer and took the sale off of the market before the ending of six weeks with no acceptance from any party. Therefore, it was also declared legal by the court. However, this case does not fall the category of Raymond- Samantha case (Graw et al., 2017). If Samantha paid Raymond £200 before three weeks of debt, the result would be same and Raymond could still ask for his proposed money.
References
Graw, S., Parker, D., Whitford, K., Sangkuhl, E. and Do, C., 2017. Understanding Business Law. 2nd ed. London: University Press.
Halbert, T. and Ingulli, E., 2016. Law & Ethics In The Business Environment. 4th ed. London: Media Press.
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