A CASE ON CONTRACT LAW

Module Title & Code:

BLT & AC 14-2

Assignment number & Title:

1 & WR-1

Submitted to:

Submitted by:

Date:

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 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
Law & Its Importance..............................................................................................................................3
Contract Law...........................................................................................................................................3
The Importance of Contract Law.............................................................................................................3
CASE DISCUSSION & ANAYLSIS..........................................................................................................4
Task 1......................................................................................................................................................4
Task 2......................................................................................................................................................4
Task 3......................................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................7
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................................................8

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 INTRODUCTION

Law & Its Importance:

Law is important as it underpins our society. Without law, a systematic life we now live, would
have never existed in the first place. Law provides a framework which plays a significant role in
making a society, function rightly. The most basic function of law is to protect individual rights
and liberties[ CITATION Geo15 \l 1033 ]. Without the help of law or any type of legislation, there
would be no way to set standards or maintain order. As some semblance is required in a civil
society and is thereby, reflected in law. Thus, it is viable that the law serves many purses.
Following are a few important one of them:

 Establishing standards
 Resolving disputes
 Protecting rights
 Ensuring citizen’s safety
 Maintaining order

Contract Law:

A contract is an agreement which is legally binding, i.e., the law will compel the individual
making a promise to fulfill it or if he/she is unable to do so, pay for the damages in order to
compensate the lose of the person with whom the promise was made [ CITATION Stu16 \l 1033 ].
The most commonly used contracts in the business world are written and even oral contracts.

The Importance of Contract Law:

Contract law’s most essential objective is to ensure cooperation in human behavior. Keeping this
in view, the court orders that the contracts should be established. This is so because the
defendants have duties owed to the claimants. When they disregard their duties for whatever
reason, the court orders the defendant to pay for the damages. These damages reflect the notion
that the claimant has been wronged by the defendant and thus, correct the injustice done to the
claimant due to the breach. Therefore, contract laws play a significant role in ensuring that no
violation of trust happens between two parties.[ CITATION Hun17 \l 1033 ]

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 A basic human trait is trust but in the real world not all things can be done on the basis of
merely trust. From an economic point of view, businesses perform a number of transactions
daily. They buy and sell products and services on cash as well as credit. Buying and selling
goods on credit gives rise to contracts as the businesses can’t simply “trust” their customers to
pay them back. Rules and regulations are needed to govern such transactions. Therefore, a
contract form comes into usage in such situations. Every detail regarding the amount of payment,
the method of payment, the date it will be received, the details of both parties (i.e. the giver and
the receiver) are clearly stated in a contract to avoid any misunderstanding. This also helps in
ensuing the smooth running of a business.

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 CASE DISCUSSION & ANAYLSIS

Task 1
As mentioned earlier, a contract can simply be described as a legally binding, written or oral
agreement. In order to have a valid and legally binding contract, the following things are
considered to be very crucial: [CITATION Ele13 \l 1033 ]

1. Offer by party A

The contract was formed when an offer by party A (Salalah City Drivers) for private
transportation is accepted by another party (Mr. Hamid). Such an offer is a definite promise
to be bounded, provided that the contract terms are being accepted. A person can also
withdraw the offer that he has been proposed with. Although Mr. Hamid did not withdraw
the offer, he did mention that he would like to be given a more spacious car where all his
photography equipment would easily adjust. For such a withdrawal to be effective, the party
who has prosed the offer i.e. the Salalah city drivers must communicate with the other party
that the offer has been withdrawn and the contract is no longer valid, which the Salalah city
driver did not do. Due to which, Mr. Hamid was left under the impression that the car will
still pick him up at the required date and time.

2. Acceptance of that offer by party B

Acceptance occurs when the party responding to the offer i.e. Mr. Hamid agrees to it by an
evident statement which indicates their acceptance. Acceptance must be effectively
communicated to the offeror

3. Consideration

Consideration is the price paid for the promise which one party makes to the other one. In
this case, Mr. Hamid would pay the Salalah driver for his services when he selected him as
the hourly and daily rates of different drivers were clearly mentioned on the website.

4. Consent:

The elements of free will and proper understanding as well as communication must be
involved while entering into a contract.in the given scenario, it is evident that part A (the

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 Salalah city divers) lacked communication on their end. When Mr. Hamid said that he would
prefer a bigger mode of transportation, no further communication was conducted from the
company’s end.

After analyzing the whole case, it is obvious that the Salalah city drivers offered the services
of private transportation where the drivers were hired on hourly or daily basis on their website.
Mr. Hamid, after reviewing the website and other potential options, selected one driver from the
website. After verification that he would be available on the required date and time, filled out an
online form in order to hire him for the day. Mr. Hamid had emailed the Salalah city drivers and
made a reservation.

Therefore, the above-mentioned aspects that make an agreement legally binding has been
fulfilled. This shows that a contract was indeed established between Salalah city drivers and Mr.
Hamid. Keeping in consideration all these factors, the argument of Salalah city drivers that they
had no contractual obligation to pick Mr. Hamid on the day of his reservation is false and is not
likely to succeed in the eyes of law as the contract was established and the Salalah city drivers
had the contractual obligation to pick Mr. Hamid up. However, they were unable to do so
because of the lack of communication at their end.

Task 2
In the second scenario, Salalah city driver contend that they are not responsible for the lost
profits of Mr. Hamid.

Mr. Hamid confirmed his reservation via email with the Salalah city drivers but wrote
that he would prefer a bigger car, probably a SUV as all his equipment wouldn’t fit in the current
car. He did not write that he is cancelling the current reservation or wants to cancel the present
reservation or anything else that would give rise to such an idea. He was given no confirmation
about whether his reservation has been cancelled or that a new driver with his choice of car has
been assigned to him. Therefore, he was still waiting for his car to show up on the day of his
meetings. The Salalah city driver didn’t show up. Mr. Hamid kept waiting for him and due to
this, he was unable to attend his first three meetings.

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 Mr. Hamid complained that he would’ve made a profit of 5000 Omani rials had he
attended his morning meetings and signed a contract with each potential customer. Now the
company, i.e., Salalah city drivers argues that they are not to be blamed for the lost profit and
shouldn’t pay for any damages that the court has charged them with. There arguments are as
follows:

1. Salalah city driver argue that Mr. Hamid was quite vague in his email and due to
sheer misunderstanding, this whole dispute has occurred. They also put forward
the fact that Mr. Hamid could have confirmed once more about his reservation,
the day before his meetings, with the driver so that no misinterpretation took
place initially, as the driver had the view that Mr. Hamid no longer wanted his
services due to accommodation issue in his car.
2. In addition, they can argue that upon waiting half an hour, he could’ve taken
another way of transportation to reach to his desired destination but he did not do
so and waited till noon when the driver replied. In this way he would have only
missed one meeting and would be able to attend the other two scheduled
meetings. Thereby, the company would only be responsible for Mr. Hamid
missing one of his six meetings and not three.

The arguments that the Salalah city drivers can put across are not as strong as they need to be for
the court to consider waiving off the damages they have been charged with. The mistake was
more on their end as they did not inform their customer about the cancellation of his reservation.
If they had informed him earlier, he would’ve booked another driving service and would be able
to attend all the meeting that were scheduled that day. But, as Mr. Hamid got no email regarding
the cancelation, he was under the impression that his driver would arrive. No prior notice was
given to Mr. Hamid about the cancellation due to which he missed three of the six meetings he
was supposed to attend that day. Considering the fact that he was able to bag two of the three
customers he actually met, the thought that he actually might’ve lost potential customers is quite
evident and makes Mr. Hamid’s position more powerful in the rule of law.

Task 3
Considering that Mr. Hamid missed his meetings because that Salalah city driver’s employee did
not show up, it does show the breach of contract because Mr. Hamid was not informed that his

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reservation has been canceled. Therefore, he thought that his driver will show up on the
scheduled date and time. It would have been likely that Mr. Hamid would obtain a judgement of
16000 Omani rials from the missed meetings but the fact that Mr. Hamid’s email was quite
vague when it came to either accepting the current car or declining it and choosing another driver
with a bigger car can act against his argument of paying for his lost profits. In such a situation,
the court may consider the following things:[ CITATION Dav17 \l 1033 ]

1. Reasonableness:

The court would take into consideration whether Mr. Hamid’s argument is more fitting than
that of the Salalah city drivers. They would take into account that the driver should’ve
emailed Mr. Hamid back. the driver should have built proper correspondence between him
and his customer to avoid any mishap from happening. But the driver did not answer Mr.
Hamid’s email in which he has clearly stated about his preference over a more spacious car.
The driver took that email as a signal for cancellation of the reservation when that was
simply not the case. If the driver had confirmed only once from Mr. Hamdi about whether the
reservation was cancelled or confirmed, such an event would have not taken place

2. Implied meaning:

They will consider whether Mr. Hamid’s words, that he would “prefer” another car meant
that he was declining the offer and cancelling his reservation or that he was looking for other
options that the driver could offer. However, the meaning taken from Mr. Hamid’s email by
the Salalah company’s driver was that he no longer wanted his services and is cancelling his
reservation with him.

Keeping the whole situation in view, it is likely that the Salalah company would have to pay for
the damages charged against them because they lacked correspondence on their end with their
client. They should have been quite clear in informing Mr. Hamid that his current reservation has
been cancelled and that he can look up for other drivers on the website, who drive more spacious
cars that would fit all his photography equipment. But the Salalah city driver, without any notice,
considered that Mr. Hamid had cancelled his reservation and did not show up on the required
date. Due to which Mr. Hamid missed three of his meeting where he could have bagged great

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deals with potential customers. Now the lost profits would have to be compensated by the
Salalah city drivers because as per the rules, the party which is unable o keep the promise has to
pay for the damages that the other party has suffered.

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 CONCLUSION

As a company, your top priority should be the comfort of your customers and meeting their
demands and the most crucial of them all, efficient communication. The company should always
keep the customers informed about every detail concerning them. Lack of sufficient
communication has always led towards the failure of a company. Similarly, the lack of
communication in this case led to Mr. Hamid waiting for the driver to show up and missing
important meetings and in return suing the company for 16000 Omani rials.

As established throughout the report, it is justified that Mr. Hamid should receive the
money he lost due to the driver not showing up on the scheduled time without any prior notice of
cancellation. In order to compensate Mr. Hamid, the company should be charged with damages.
In the future, in order to avoid such circumstances, the company should try to respond to their

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customer’s demands immediately and communicate effectively with them to avoid such a
situation from taking place again.

Salalah driver company lacked the communication that was necessary to avoid the
misinterpretation that took place. Mr. Hamid could have also asked for further details from the
driver and the driver should have clearly stated that his reservation is no longer valid as he is not
driving Mr. Hamid’s choice of transportation. But nothing of such sort was done. Mr. Hamid was
left in the middle thinking that the driver would arrive and he didn’t. the company should pay
punitive damages to Mr. Hamid due to breach of contract and in order to compensate for the loss
he incurred by missing three meeting which might’ve helped him bag some potential customers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anon., 2013. Element of a Contract. [Online]

Available at: www.lawteacher.net
[Accessed November 2013].

Bates, D. G., 2017. 7 ways to avoid vague contracts. bizjounals.

LLP, H. A., 2017. Challenging Contract terms.

Rivlin, G., 2015. First Steps in the Law. 7th ed. s.l.:s.n.

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Shinn, J., 2016. Study.com. [Online].

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