Thursday, September 25, 2014

Contract Law

Over the past two weeks in business, we have been looking at contract law. We studied two main cases:

Smith Vs. Hughes:


Smith was an English racehorse trainer. He ordered oats from Hughes after seeing a sample of them. But when the oats arrived, they were not what Smith was expecting. Smith had required old oats, the only oats that his horses would eat, yet he was delivered green oats. However, the sample that had been shown to Smith was of green oats, which he did not want. Nevertheless, Smith sued Hughes for breaching their contract.

The matter was brought before the courts. It was said that Smith should have been more sensible, as he had been presented with a sample of green oats. As a result, Hughes was found not to be in breach of contract. This goes down in history as being one of the first contract law cases. The simple principles surrounding this case inspired a new business idea; Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware). This rule is still in use today


The Carbolic Smokeball Co.:

No comments:

Post a Comment