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Genb4350 Case 4

Facts

Melanie and Amanda are best friends.   Amanda agreed to cater Melanie’s 16 year old daughter’s birthday party with appetizers and desserts.   They had the agreement more than three weeks in advance.   Amanda called Melanie and canceled four days prior to the party because her mother in law passed away and she was going to her funeral.   Amanda and her whole family would be going out of town to attend the funeral.   Melanie was put in a bind because she could not find another caterer locally to cater the party.   Melanie’s only option was to hire a national catering company that Melanie would have to pay much more than she was expecting to pay for Amanda’s catering services.  

Legal issue

Is there a valid contract between Amanda and Melanie and if there is would the contract be enforceable?  

Applicable laws

A contract requires a valid offer, acceptance, and consideration. Under common law, an offer must have had the offeror express an intention to make the offer, it must be reasonably distinct, and it must be made to the intended offeree.   Acceptance is the second requirement for a contract to be valid.   Acceptance would have to illustrate that there was something intended to be accepted, is what the offeror offered, and is communicated in some form to the offeror.   The third requirement under common law is consideration.   Consideration supplied by one party to another must be something that is agreed upon by the other party and have legal value.  

With this, if an agreement does not contain one of the required components to make the contract valid it could still be enforced under the theory of promissory estoppel.   This is different from traditional contract laws since promissory estoppel protects reliance instead of bargains. This theory has three requirements to make it applicable to enforce.   First, the promisor makes a promise that they know the other party will likely rely on.   Also, the promisee really does depend on that promise.   Lastly,...