Acceptance in Business Contracts Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Acceptance in Business Contracts - Assignment Example In business, contracts are considered to be quite vital as to preserve transparency in business dealings and also to bind the parties engaged in a legal contract to perform their responsibilities with efficiency. There are various elements to a business contract, which mainly involves an offer, an acceptance, a free mutual consent, a legal purpose, competent offeror(s) and offeree(s) and consideration of a value engaged in the contract to benefit the purpose of the contract (Marsh Parlin Law, 2012). The discussion henceforth will be focused on elaborating the element of acceptance in a business contract. Accordingly, the important factors of making a valid acceptance will also be explained in this paper. Due significance will also be rendered towards cases where the validity of an acceptance made in a contract were examined. Prior to discussing the significance of acceptance in a business contract, it is worth defining an offeror and an offeree. As per the English Contract Law, there must be at least two parties in an agreement, i.e. the party making the offer and the other accepting the offer. The party or parties engaged in making the offer are referred as offeror(s); while, the party or parties giving their mutual consent to the agreement is termed as offeree(s) or acceptor(s) (McGraw-Hill, 2013). It is in this context that even if the agreement is made on the basis of a valid offer, in case the acceptance is made under external pressure and is found to lack free consent from the offeree(s), the contract is quite likely to be termed as void. Therefore, it can be affirmed that it is essential to have a valid offer and a valid acceptance to make a contract legally approved. Absence of either of the elements shall result in a void contract. From a generalised perspective, acceptance can be referred as the act of free affirmation or acceptance made by the offeree(s) in lieu to the proposal given by the offeror(s). In other words, it is the manifestation of the full concern made by the offeree to be bound by the terms of the offer made. It is in this context that acceptance can be made through various forms, i.e. either through verbal agreement with documented acceptance of the offer, or through implied and non-verbal forms, making signs to convey the acceptance of the offer. In the case of a verbal acceptance, the offeree tends to depict his confirmation through a signature or through explicit verbal mode. Such mode of acceptance can be illustratively expla ined with reference to Brogden v Metropolitan Railway (1877) 2 App. Cas. 666. In this case, however, no signature or direct acceptance was made by the offeree (Brogden) to confirm the contractual conditions stated by the offeror (Metropolitan Railway). Correspondingly, no arguments were also made by the offeree in this context, deciphering their non-acceptance to the contract. Rather, the offeree continued abiding by the contractual terms, even though the contract did not have an explicitly communicated form of acceptance. When the case was reviewed in the court, the judgment delivered was of the view that the contract was a valid business agreement, as the offeree has deciphered acceptance by not making any counter arguments to the written contract forwarded by Metropolitan Railway (e-Lawresources, n.d.). In another case of Day Morris Associates v Voyce and another, a similar mode of acceptanc