Principles of the Law of Contracts

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL AGREEMENT. L Ancient essentials ot contracts, 46-48 A. In debt, 47 B. In covenant, 48 C. in assumpsit, 49 1L Modern essentials of contracts, 50-175 A. Agreement, 50-68 1. Offer, $ 51-61 a. Proposal to give or do something, g 51-60 (1) Promise or act, 52 (2) Communication, 53 (a) Time, 53 (b)...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL AGREEMENT. L Ancient essentials ot contracts, 46-48 A. In debt, 47 B. In covenant, 48 C. in assumpsit, 49 1L Modern essentials of contracts, 50-175 A. Agreement, 50-68 1. Offer, $ 51-61 a. Proposal to give or do something, g 51-60 (1) Promise or act, 52 (2) Communication, 53 (a) Time, 53 (b) Manner, 53 (I) Duration, ] 54-56 (a) Revocation, 55 (aa) Time, 55 (bb) Manner, 51 (b) Lapse, 57-66 (aa) Prescribed time, 57 (bb) Reasonable time, 58 (cc) Death, 59 (dd) Rejection, 66 1 Acceptance, 61-68 a. Absolute and unconditional accession to proposal, ( 61-67 (1) Promise or act, 62 (2) Communication, 63 (a) Manner not prescribed, 64 (b) Manner prescribed, $ 65 (c) Time, 66 (8) Revocation, 67 b. Effect, 68 B. Terms definite and certain, 69 C. lntention to create legal relations, 70 46. In early English law the essentials to the enforcibility of an agreement were either benefits bestowed or formalities in expression. The idea of agreement formed by offer and acceptance was unknown. A promise operated, not by way of obligation, but by way of grant. If the law of contracts is that which enforces a promise, there was none in the early common law. Actions werebrought not to enforce promises but to get something conceived as already belonging to the plaintiff. In this state of contract law there was little to distinguish it from the modern law of quasi contract, and from the analogy between them it is reasonable to infer that the two obligations have a common source in the notion of readjustment of proprietary rights. 47. If one person had the possession of a certain sum of money or of goods belonging to another, the actions o...