MGT809 Plaintiff And Defendant Argument: Carlill V Carbolic Smoke Ball Company Case Assessment Answer

Answer :

Contract Law

Executive summary

This report divulges the implication of the case study of the Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)Company. However, this case study is accompanied by the contract rules and regulations which is required to be complied by contract parties while entering into the contract. There are several essential elements of the (legal contract) which contract parties need to comply while entering into the contract. The contract is the legal agreement which binds the parties to perform certain terms and conditions and failure to comply with those terms may result in the breach of the contract. However, there are available contract remedies which are given to the aggrieved party in the contract rules if another contract party fails to perform. This report reveals the arguments of the plaintiff and defendant in the given case of the Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)Company. There are several elements and legal implication of the contract which have been described in the given case. This given case shows that both the parties to the contract are legally binding and if one fails to perform the contract then other parties could go for the injection and other legal remedies to the defaulting party. This report has shown the key aspects of the contract to determine whether the advertisement published in the legal contract or not.

Introduction

It is considered that contract parties (Parties who are entered in legal contract) are legally binding to the contract terms and conditions which they need to comply to discharge their legal liabilities. In this report, the legal implication of the contract terms and set essential intents of contract (Acceptance, legal parties, consideration, offer and acceptance) have been given. These intents needs to be full filed by contract parties (two or more parties). This report reveals the key implicating of the legal contract of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1 which divulges the key elements of the English contract and court decisions by the court of appeal in the open advertisement. In the starting of this report, facts of the case and its legal essential factors have been given. This case has shown the legal formation of the contract and how an open advertisement in the market could form a legal contract. After that, arguments of plaintiff and defendant in the given case of the Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)Company has been divulged. Afterward, the issues of the case and legal finding which results in the formation of the contract have been given. This report shows the key aspects of the contract and the legal implication reveals by the plaintiff and defendant in the given case. The given case has shown that the decision of the court of appeal is given and as there is a binding contract between the plaintiff and defendant. In the given case, the legal liability of the defendant due to his fault has been given and assessed whether he is bound to pay the compensation amount to the plaintiff for the same or not. 

ISSUES OF THE CASE:-

The appeal made to the court by the defendant have been on the basis of the facts, issues and other legal factors by the both contract parties in the advertisement contract

1. Whether the advertisement is a contract?
2. Whether offer acceptance is duly given or communicated to offeror?
3. Whether both parties are legally bound to contract?
4. Whether there is a valid consideration?

Finding

In the said case, the Company "Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)Company'' launched  given item name "Smoke Ball" to cure influenza and other ill-ness. The Smoke Ball (offered product) is tube attached rubber Ball which was filled with carbolic acid and it is used by inserting it in the user's nose to release the acid.

The Company had advertised in the Pall Mall advertisement on November in the year of 1983, that they will pay £100 to anyone who influenced by Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)

Mrs. Carlill read the advertisement and used the Smoke Ball (offered product) as per the direction is given by the Company. But after using it, she enter into given contract with influenza on 17 January 1892 and claimed the reward of £100 from the Company. But the Company refused to give the reward as offered by the Advertisement. She brought a suit against the Company in the Court. 

However, in the given case, it was found that there are several essential elements and intents of contract which needed to be complied or accepted by contract parties. However, elements are given below. 

Offer- In order to form a legal contract, there needs to be one offer given by one party to the other party. It is analyzed that forming a legal contract requires mandatory the essential element to be complied. There would be legal offer by contract party to another party (Adriaanse, 2016). 

Acceptance- It is analyzed that once the offer is made by one party to other, there needs to be a formal acceptance given by one party to the other offeror. This is required to be given either in written or oral (Duguit, 2018).

Agreement- there needs to a legal agreement either written or orally between the parties. The agreement is formed only after the offer and acceptance is given by the parties to the contract. 

Consideration- This is the amount of money or certain compensation which is required to be paid or being paid by the parties to the contract. It is an essential element to form the legal contract (Schmidt, 2017). 

Legal capacity (Contract parties) - All the contract parties needs to have the legal capacity to enter into the contract. The Contract party (Those who have contract among) should be major and does not suffer from any lunatic and idiotic ill-ness (Stone, & Devenney, 2017).

After assessing the legal conditions of the contract, it is found that once the contract is framed then the parties to the contract are legally binding to perform the set terms and conditions in the contract. In the given case, the performance of the contract by the party has been assessed and determined whether the defendant pay the consideration to the Contract party (Those who have contract among) for the non-performance of the contract (Hughes, Champion, & Murdoch, 2015). 

ARGUMENTS OF PLAINTIFF AND DEFENDANT:-

This case of legal contract has revealed that defendant said that it is not liable to pay any consideration to plaintiff (Compensation of consideration to plaintiff) considering the fact that there is no legal contract framed (McKendrick, & Liu, 2015).

RATIO DECIDENDI:-

The observations of the Court of Appeal are as follows:

Application

Hence, it was held that the Advertisement is a promise or general offer made by the Company to the entire world. As it is implied offer, the acceptance is complete when the conditions of the offer are performed by the users of the smoke ball. This transaction is having all elements of the valid contract. That’s why it can be enforced by the plaintiff who used the Smoke Ball (offered product)as per the printing instructions of the Company. The defendant is liable to pay certain amount (Reward) of £100 to the plaintiff.

As in the case held of Williams v Carwardine 4 B. Ad. 621, it is divulged that as per the general provision, there should be following essentials for forming a valid contract:-

1. Promise
2. Acceptance
3. Consideration

In the above-discussed case, the advertisement is not mere puff. The language of the advertisement suggests that they had deposited the sum in the Bank account with Alliance Bank for the performance of the promise. This will be considered as ‘Promise’ and the performance of legal certain condition specified in the Advertisement is considered as ‘Valid Acceptance’. 

It is analyzed with the valid acceptance of the contract agreement of the contract will become the contract and parties to the contract would be legally binding to perform the terms and condition to discharge their liabilities.

By this advertisement, the Company had gained lots of the profit and increased the sale of their product. This is adequate Consideration for the promise.

The offer does not contain any time limit for performance of the offer, so it cannot be revoked by the Company. 

After assessing the case, it could be inferred that it is completely agreed with the decision of the court of appeal as there is a binding contract between the plaintiff and defendant. Thus, the Defendant is bound to pay certain amount (Reward) Amount of £100 to the Plaintiff for the performance of the contract. However, after that, there was the appeal made by the defendant to take relief on the passed order but the Arguments of the Defendant was rejected by the court.

Recommendation

After assessing the legal implication of the contract laws and regulations, it has been found that contract is the legally binding on the parties and Contract party (Those who have contract among) are liable to perform the obligation of the contract. It is advised that if the Contract party (Those who have contract among) fails to perform the contract then the other aggrieved party may go for the injection or performance of the contract. In this case, the defendant of the contract should go for the performance of the contract or if the plaintiff fails to perform the contract then the defendant being an aggrieved party would be liable to be compensated by the plaintiff.  In the case of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball (offered product)Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1, it is advised that all the elements of the contract should be legally full field by the Contract party (Those who have contract among) if they want to frame a legal contract. However, in the failure to comply one element of the contract may result to doubt of the contract legality. And it is being assessed that if the performance of the contract is failed by the one-party then other parties would be legally bound to compensate the other party or will perform his party of obligation. In the above-discussed case, the advertisement is not mere puff. The language of the advertisement suggests that they had deposited the sum in the Bank account with Alliance Bank for the performance of promise (Mansell, 2015). This will be considered as ‘Promise’ and the performance of legal certain condition specified in the Advertisement is considered as ‘Valid Acceptance’. 

Conclusion

After assessing the contract case, the fact found here is that the advertisement contract would be considered a legal contract. This contract is accompanied by the intents of framing legal contract. In this case, it is agreed that the defendant would pay compensation (Consideration equal to loss) to plaintiff. It is analyzed that the defendant is bound to pay certain amount (Reward) amount of £100 to the Plaintiff for the performance of the contract.  This is found that if any of the party failed to perform the contract then that person would be liable to pay for the compensation. Hence, it was held that the Advertisement is a promise or general offer made by the Company to the entire world. As it is implied offer, the acceptance is complete when the conditions of the offer are performed by the users of the smoke ball. This transaction is having all elements of the valid contract. That’s why it can be enforced by the plaintiff who used the Smoke Ball (offered product)as per the printing instructions of the Company and the defendant is liable to pay certain amount (Reward) to the plaintiff.