Court Opinion
Introduction
The case between Masons and R&G involves the signing of a sale and purchase contract. Basically Paul Mason signed blank contract papers due to time constraint. While doing so, he was expecting that the company will write terms that adhered to what they had agreed on. However, the R & G failed to inform the Masons about other important terms such as arbitration despite knowing that Manson did not get a chance of reading the contract. In this regard, Masons got into a contract that they did not know anything about. This paper evaluates the Mason and R&G legal positions based on the signed contract.
Court Reaction Regarding the Case
Based on the R&G claim, it is clear that the signed contract has an arbitration clause which governs on how the cases between the company and its customers should be handled in case of a dispute. Although this arbitration is legal and would ensure that the company cases are settled out of court, the customer in question was not aware of its existence. This is a clear indication that the customer was taken into signing a contract and condition which he could not have gotten into if he could have known about them prior to signing of the contract. The R & G did not play its role of informing its customers on all contractual terms and thus, the conned the customers into signing a contract with unfavorable condition. A biding contract according to Connell (n.d.), requires mutual assent where by the two parties must know all terms of the contract before signing of the contract. The fact that Mason did not know of the existence of arbitration implies the arbitration was not communicated to all parties before the contract and thus, Mason is protect by the contract law based on nondisclosure. In this regard, the court will consider that Mason got into the contract without the full information of the contracture term and R&G failed to communicate the terms to Masons despite knowing that they never had information about it. Thus, the court will consider handling the case in protection of Masons.
Existance of the Contract
A contract is an agreement developing duties enforced by law. The contract basic elements include legality, capacity, consideration, and mutual assent. Contracts come to be when a duty may come or does exist. The contract in question is between R&G Company and Masons who are adults of majority age, and with no any mental related medical issues. In this regard the two contractual parties have the capacity to contract. The contract is also legal since it is a business contract which is well recognized by the law (Connell, n.d.). The two contracting party were initially in mutual assent but only by word of mouth since the contractual form was not filled. However, the disagreement developed after the contract forms were filled since they failed to adhere to the initial agreed conditions. Thus, the contract can be said to lack mutual assent since there is still no way R&G can objectively prove that there was an offer and acceptance of the offer in writing. Masons did not get to read the contract and thus, they worked on verbal agreements. Moreover, signing of a blank contract forms gives the contract writer an opportunity to exploit the other party by filling in what was more favorable to them. There would be no compromise in the writers end and thus, the contract is faulty in many ways. The contract also failed to honor the Masons consideration. In this regard, Mason considered that their van would fetch a total of $2800. After realizing that the van could not manage even half of the owner valuation, the company continued with its selling without consulting the owner or seeking the owners’ authorization. Thus, the contract fails to satisfy two most essential characteristic of a contract and it also involve nondisclosure element as well as misrepresentation since the content of the contract is highly disapproved by Masons and it was written without their approval. Thus this contract needs to be nullified and in my opinion it does not exist (Nolo, 2015).
Tort of Conversion
Conversion entails a voluntary act resulting to interference over goods of another person. Conversion can also be committed when a person does not have the intention to do so. The tort of conversion basic element include that the conduct of the defendant was inconsistent with the owner’s right, the conduct was deliberate and the conduct excluded the owner from possession and use of goods. This happens even when the offender has the actual goods possession or immediate right to goods possession (WCL, n.d.). In this case Mason had handed over the Van to R&G Company to be used to pay part of the new car prices. His valuation was $2800 a price that was unattainable according to R&B. However, the company proceeded and sold the van despite of fetching an extremely bad price as compared to what the owner anticipated. The selling of the van even at poor price could be done deliberately to pressure Masons to purchase a new car. In my opinion, the company was required to halt the sell after realizing that its cost does not match the customer expectation. In ability to react sensibly in this case makes this a conversion. Based on the case study, Mason only signed blank papers and did not whatsoever participate in filling of any of the provided paper. Maybe Masons’ intention while filling the mileage and van value was not good, however the deal was to define the monthly payment after subtracting the selling price of the van. In this regard, Masons was compelled to pay every single cent that was required to own the new car. In this regard, Masons could not have managed to commit any fraud act. Thus in my opinion Masons were not guilty of fraud.
References
Connell. (n.d.). Contract. Legal Information Institute. Retrieved from < https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/contract>
Nolo. (2015). Unenforceable contracts: what to watch out for. Retrieved from < http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/unenforceable-contracts-tips-33079.html>
WCL. (n.d.). Torts outline. Retrieved from < https://www.wcl.american.edu/sba/outline_databank/outlines/Torts_Popper.pdf>
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