§ 19-3 Contract - Breach of Contract - Elements

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 19-3 Contract - Breach of Contract - Elements

What is a contract? A contract is an agreement between two or more parties, the preliminary step in the making of which is an offer by one and acceptance by the other in which the minds of the parties meet and concur in understanding the terms.

A contract is the meeting of the minds of at least two parties. It involves an offer and acceptance and it must bind both parties. The essentials of a contract are:

(1) a person or entity able to contract; [the defendant in this case is a corporation; it is able to contract and able to be contracted with];
(2) a person or entity able to be contracted with;
(3) a thing to be contracted for;
(4) good and sufficient consideration;
(5) clear and explicit words to express the contract; and
(6) the assent of both the contracting parties.

In South Carolina, a contract may be in writing or it may be oral, that is, by word-of-mouth, or it may be a combination of those types, that is, some things in writing, some things oral, or by word-of-mouth.

A contract contemplates an agreement enforceable at law between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of some specific thing, and a contract must create legal obligation. A contract is an agreement which creates an obligation and its essentials are:

(1) competent parties;
(2) a subject matter;
(3) consideration;
(4) mutuality of agreement; and
(5) mutuality of obligation.

A contract is a transaction involving two or more parties whereby each becomes obligated to the other with reciprocal rights to demand performance of what is promised by each respectively.

A contract is an agreement on sufficient consideration to do or not do a particular thing. Therefore, the consideration is a vital element in a binding contract, and no contract is complete without legal consideration. When the law says there must be consideration, the law does not require any form of consideration. The law says consideration is that which the parties agree to as consideration. It may be money, it may be an agreement to do a particular thing, and it may consist of mutual promises. A valuable consideration in the sense of the law may consist either in some right, interest, profit, benefit accruing to one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss or responsibility given, suffered or undertaken by the other.

Consideration may consist in a benefit to the promisor, the one doing the promising or a detriment to the promisee, the one receiving the promise...