Guide to Legal Contracts = Английский язык для юристов договорное право. Учебное пособие по английскому языку для студентов юридических вузов

ДОГОВОР КУПЛИ-ПРОДАЖИ

Договор купли-продажи – договор, по которому одна сторона (продавец) обязуется передать вещь (товар) в собственность другой стороне (покупателю), а покупатель обязуется принять этот товар и уплатить за него определенную денежную сумму. Форма договора в общих положениях не предусмотрена, поэтому применяются общие правила о сделках.

Виды договоров купли-продажи:

1)розничная купля-продажа;

2)поставка товаров;

3)поставка товаров для государственных нужд;

4)энергоснабжение;

5)продажа недвижимости;

6)продажа предприятий.

Содержание договора – его условия. Они считаются согласованными, если договор позволяет определить наименование и количество товара. Для отдельных видов купли-продажи установлены требования о необходимости согласования более широкого круга условий.

1.Условие о товаре. Считается согласованным, если содержание договора позволяет определить наименование и количество товара.

2.Количество товара. Оно предусматривается в определенных единицах измерения либо в денежном выражении. Это условие может быть согласовано путем установления в договоре лишь порядка определения количества товара. Условие о количестве является существенным. Если договор не позволяет определить количество товара, он считается незаключенным.

3.Ассортимент товара. Ассортимент – соотношение товара по размерам, видам, моделям и другим признакам. Он согласовывается сторонами. Если ассортимент не определен и не установлен порядок его определения, а из обязательства вытекает, что товар должен быть в ассортименте, продавец вправе передать покупателю товар в ассортименте исходя из потребностей покупателя, которые были известны продавцу на момент заключения договора, или отказаться от исполнения договора.

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Цена на несоответствующие товары должна быть согласована.

4.Качество товара. Оно должно соответствовать договору купли-продажи и может быть определено образцом и (или) описанием. Обязательные требования к качеству могут быть предусмотрены законом. Соглашением сторон могут быть установлены повышенные требования к качеству.

Гарантии качества: законная и договорная. По законной товар должен быть в пределах разумного срока пригоден для целей, для которых такие товары обычно используются. Качество определяется на момент передачи товара, если договором не определено иное. При договорной продавец предоставляет гарантию качества в течение определенного договором времени.

Гарантийный срок – срок, в течение которого продавец гарантирует пригодность использования товара для целей, установленных договором. Он начинает течь с момента передачи товара. Срок продлевают, если товар не может быть использован изза обнаруженных недостатков при условии оповещения об этом продавца.

5.Комплектность товара – определенный набор товаров. Обязательство считается исполненным с момента передачи всех товаров одновременно, если иное не вытекает из договора или из существа обязательства.

Продавец обязан передать товар в таре и упаковке, если иное не предусмотрено в договоре или если товар по своему характеру не требует упаковки.

Большая юридическая энциклопедия

ДОГОВОР ПОСТАВКИ

Договор поставки – договор, по которому поставщик, осуществляющий предпринимательскую деятельность, обязуется передать в обусловленный срок или сроки производимые или закупаемые им товары покупателю для использования в предпринимательской деятельности или в иных целях, не связанных с личным, семейным, домашним и иным подобным использованием.

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Сторонами в договоре являются поставщик и покупатель.

В качестве поставщика может быть гражданин или коммерческая организация. Поставщик либо сам производит поставляемую продукцию, либо приобретает ее. Покупателем могут быть любые лица, кроме граждан, которые приобретают товар для нужд, направленных на удовлетворение личных потребностей.

Предмет договора поставки – это любые вещи и предметы, находящиеся в гражданском обороте и не изъятые из него. Предметом поставки должен быть именно тот товар, который поставщик либо производит, либо продает. Цель покупки товара – использование в предпринимательской или иной деятельности, не связанной с личным использованием. Существенным условием поставки является срок передачи товаров, так как заключение

ипередача, как правило, не совпадают. Цена договора не относится к существенным условиям договора, и она определяется по соглашению сторон.

Форма договора поставки – письменная.

Обязанности поставщика: 1) передать покупателю товар, предусмотренный договором поставки; 2) одновременно с передачей вещи передать покупателю ее принадлежности; 3) передать относящиеся к товару документы; 4) передать покупателю товар свободным от любых прав третьих лиц; 5) продавец обязан передать товар в количестве, предусмотренном по договору; 6) передать товар в ассортименте, т.е. по видам, цветам; 7) передать покупателю товар, качество которого соответствует договору; 8) передать покупателю товар, соответствующий условиям договора о комплектности; 9) передать покупателю товар в таре

иупаковке; 10) передать товар в соответствующие сроки, если установлены периоды поставки или график; 11) доставить товар транспортом, предусмотренным в договоре.

Обязанности покупателя: 1) совершить все необходимые действия по приемке товара; 2) осмотреть принимаемый товар в установленный срок; 3) в этот же срок проверить количество и качество принимаемого товара; 4) при получении товара от транспортной организации проверить соответствие товара сведениям, указанным в сопроводительных документах; 5) если покупатель отказался от поставленного товара, то он должен взять

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товар на ответственное хранение; 6) оплатить поставленный товар с соблюдением порядков и формы, установленных соглашением; 7) возвратить поставщику многооборотную тару и средство пакетирования.

Односторонний отказ от договора поставки (или его изменение) допускается в случаях существенного нарушения его условий одной из сторон. Такими нарушениями для поставщика считаются: 1) поставка товаров ненадлежащего качества с недостатками, которые нельзя устранить в приемлемый для покупателя срок; 2) неоднократная просрочка товаров.

Большая юридическая энциклопедия

DEFENSES

In its most basic form, a contract exists where there is an offer, an acceptance of the offer, and consideration to support the contract. Despite the existence of these three elements, enforcement of a contract may be denied if a sufficient defense to the formation of contracts is present.

In order for an individual to enter into a contract, that person must have the legal capacity to do so. At common law, minors, individuals whoarementallyill,personsundertheinfluenceofalcoholordrugs,and those under alegal guardianship lack legal capacity tocontract.The rule as to minors is that a contract of a minor is voidable, not void. That is, a minor has the option tomake a contract valid ornot. In addition to capacity, anindividual must have the legal competency toenter acontract. Competency is generally defined asthe mental ability ofa party to contract. In other words, a legally competent person is one who possesses the ability to recognize and understand the contractual obligations that will result. Courts will assume that capacity and competency exist until it is proved otherwise. Ifthe parties toa contract make amutual mistake with regard to that contract, such as a mutual misunderstanding, there is no mutual assent and therefore no contract. Clerical errors, known as scrivener’s errors, will generally be corrected by a court.

Acontract that is based on a fraudulent misrepresentation of a materialtermisunenforceable.Afraudulentmisrepresentationismaterial

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if the maker intended for the misrepresentation to induce the other party to enter the contract and if the misrepresentation would likely induce a reasonable person to so enter the contract.

Duress may make a contract unenforceable. Physical duress, or forcing a person to accept an offer, invalidates the contract, while the threat of physical harm makes the contract voidable at the election of the victim. Courts are divided on whether economic duress is sufficient to deny the enforceability of a contract.

A contract that is entered into under undue influence is also void¬ able at the election of the victim. Examples are the influence that an adult child may have over an elderly parent who is dependent on the child for care, or the reliance of an unsophisticated individual on a sophisticated adviser, where the adviser is aware of the reliance.

As a general rule, an illegal bargain is void as a matter of law and may not be enforced. Therefore, a contract to commit murder, to rob a bank, or to steal a car is void as a matter of law.

Acontract may be void because enforcement of the contract would be unconscionable. Unconscionability may be found only where there is grossly disproportionate bargaining power to the extent that one of the parties had virtually no choice in accepting the terms of the contract. Contracts are rarely found to be unconscionable unless a significant public policy issue is involved.

CONTRACT INTERPRETATION

An offer, acceptance, and consideration must be present to form acontract.Thedefensestocontractformation,asdiscussedabove,may be used to show that no contract exists. However, even if it is shown that a contract does exist, questions may arise as to the content and meaning of that contract.

RULES OF CONSTRUCTION

In interpreting contracts, courts generally follow certain fundamental rules of construction. Under the four corners rule, courts will

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restrict their analyses to the written terms of the agreement itself, wherever possible. Ambiguities will be construed against the drafter. Courts will generally find that specifics in a contract will control over generalities.Words and phrases used in a contract are given their plain meaning absent evidence to the contrary.

PAROL EVIDENCE RULE

The parol evidence rule provides that if the parties to a contract intended for their contract to be a complete integration, that is, if the parties intended that the written agreement be the full extent of the understanding between them, then evidence other than the contract itself may not be admitted to contradict the written terms. Therefore, in interpreting a contract, the court should generally not look beyond the contract itself for interpretation. The parol evidence rule permits evidence intended to prove or disprove the legitimacy of contract formation, such as evidence showing a party’s capacity or showing fraud or mutual mistake, but prohibits evidence intended to vary, contradict, or change the terms of the written agreement. Of course, if a contract refers to another document, that other document may be admitted to explain the terms of the contract at issue.

STATUE OF FRAUDS

Acommonmistakeisthebeliefthatoralcontractsarenotenforce¬ able. In fact, most oral contracts, if they fulfill all of the requirements of a contract, are indeed enforceable. While the requirements vary from state to state, generally the statute of frauds requires the following contracts to be in writing: contracts by executors, administrators, or other personal representatives; contracts in consideration of marriage;contractsforthesaleofrealestate;contractsforthesaleofgoods exceeding $500; and contracts that will not be performed within one year of the making of the contract.The statute of frauds generally does not require any particular written form, and generally a contract will suffice so long as it identifies the parties, describes the subject matter,

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states the essential and material terms, states that consideration exists, and is signed by the party against whom enforcement is sought.

Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

REMEDIES AND DAMAGES

Generally, the victim of a breached contract is entitled to be made whole, or put in the same position as that party would have been in had the contract been fulfilled. Commonly, this is done by forcing the breaching party to pay the aggrieved party compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are intended to compensate the nonbreaching party for the actual damages suffered. Normally, compensatory damages are measured by the party’s expectancy, or what the parties should have reasonably foreseen as flowing from the breach. Expectancy damages are often described as conferring the benefit of the bargain upon the nonbreaching party. Where expectancy damages are difficult to determine or otherwise impractical, a party may receive reliance damages, which are intended to compensate for the losses incurred in relying on the breaching party’s fulfillment of the contract. A third alternative for compensation is restitution, where the breaching party must compensate the victim for the benefit conferred upon the breaching party.

Liquidateddamagesareamethodusedbycontractingpartiestoestimate the damages that will result in the event of a breach. Liquidated damages may not serve as a penalty against the breaching party, but so long as they are a reasonable estimate of the damages that would be suffered by the nonbreaching party, they will be enforced.Aclause in an apartment rental contract that requires a breaching party to pay two months rent is a common form of liquidated damages.

Punitive damages are those intended to punish the breaching party. Punitive damages are available only in very rare cases; they generally are not awarded in contract disputes.

Finally, equitable relief is available to nonbreaching parties where none of the above remedies would be sufficient. Under the concept of equity, a court may take corrective action other than by awarding money. In rare circumstances where none of the above described com-

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pensatory damages would be sufficient, a court may order specific performance. That is, the court will order the parties to fulfill their obligations under the contract. This method is not favored because of the practical difficulty of enforcement, but in some cases, such as the purchase of real estate, art, and the like, it is the only remedy that is sufficient. Also available is an injunction, which is a court order preventing a party from taking further action, such as a continued breach of a contract.

Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

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CONTRACT LAW CASES

In order to fully understand contract law, students need to know how to analyze case problems as well as to read, understand and brief court cases.

ANALYZING CASES /PROBLEMS

Before you can analyze or apply the relevant law to specific sets of facts you must clearly understand those facts:

  You should read through the case / problem carefully, if necessary – more than once.

  Make sure you understand the identity of the plaintiff(s) [the party who files a complaint in a civil suit in a trial court] and defendant(s) [the party being sued] and the progression of events that lead to the lawsuit.

Once you understand the facts given in the case / problem you can begin to analyze the case. IRAC (An acronym for ISSUE, RULE, APPLICATION and CONCLUSION) is a helpful tool to use in legal analysis and reasoning process. Applying this method to the sample case will involve the following steps:

1.  First youneedtodecidewhatlegalissueisinvolvedinthecase. 2.  Once you have identified the issue, the next step is to determine what rule of law applies to the issue. To do this, you will want to review the text of the relevant Unit of the textbook to find the re-

quired rule of law.

3.  The next – and usually the most difficult – step is the application of the rule of law to the specific facts of the case you are studying.

4.  Once you have completed step 3 in the IRAC method you should be ready to draw your conclusions.

A careful review of the material you have studied should provide you with the knowledge you need to analyze the problem thoroughly and arrive at accurate conclusions.

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USEFUL LANGUAGE

Legal terms and phrases:

The case relates to… The issue in this case is…

The case involves the following circumstances: The facts of the case are as follows:

The question before the court is… The legal issue in question is …

Judging from the facts of the case, the court came to the conclusion that …

We can assume that…

Since the defendant failed to … The lower court held that…

The question raised by this case is whether…

Personal comments: To begin with, to start with, furthermore, moreover, in other words, from my point of view, in my opinion/view, personally, to my mind, I think, I believe, I suppose, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that…, I’d like to point out that…in fact, actually, first of all, as well as, finally, clearly, of course, obviously, apparently, it seems that, although, though, even though, whereas (formal), despite, on the contrary, however, nevertheless, the thing is (that), the question is, in relation to, as regards, moving on to, to sum up, in summary, to finish off.

Problem solving (an example):

Facts: Amanda is walking down Massachusetts Avenue near American University. Max is walking in the opposite direction and just before he passes Amanda, he sees a car swerving toward her. He throws Amanda out of the way and is hit by the car himself, suffering serious injuries. Amanda tells Max (in the hospital) that she will give him $ 10 000 for his efforts to save her. When Max gets out of hospital, he asks Amanda for the money. She pretends that she does not know him.

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