NOTTINGHAM LAW SCHOOL LL.B 2012-2013

LL.B – DISTANCE LEARNING

COURSEWORK PROFORMA

Please complete and submit this form as the first page of every coursework otherwise your coursework will not be accepted.

|Student Number: |Tutor: | |Mark Awarded: |
|(As shown on your student card) | | | |
|N0455569 | | | |

Subject:Law of Contract……………………… Coursework Number: Two

Date of Submission: 6th January, 2013

• This form MUST be attached …show more content…
For that agreement to be legally enforceable, consideration also needs to be shown. Generally, performance of an existing duty will be insufficient as consideration. This general rule was established in the case of Stilk v Myrick [1]. In this case the captain of a ship promised extra payment if a smaller crew than intended sailed the ship back; the court held that the promise of extra payment was not enforceable as the crew had provided no consideration to support the promise and simply carried out their existing obligation. While this established the basic principal more recent cases have challenged this rule. In Williams v Roffey Bros [2], additional payment was promised if refurbishment of a set of flats were completed on time. The Court of Appeal held that the plaintiffs were entitled to their additional payment as the defendants avoided a disbenefit of a penalty clause for late completion, and this in itself provided consideration. Glidewell L.J. set out a set of criteria to clarify the application of the principal as follows: i) If A has entered into a contract with B to do work for, or to supply good or services to, B in return for payment by B; and ii) at some stage before A has completely performed his obligations under the contract B has reason to doubt whether A will, or will be able to, complete his side of the bargain and iii) B thereupon promises A an additional payment in return