BUL 4421 FAU GENDLER STANDARD EXAM SHEET
2025/2026 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Adequacy of consideration - ✔✔- court seldom requires this... the court does not
weigh whether you made a good bargain
- Exception: if the court believes fraud or undue influence occurred, the court may look
at adequacy of consideration.
✔✔Illusory promise - ✔✔is not a promise, is not a consideration
- Example: Shawn offers to sell molly his skis for $300, and Molly responds "I'll look at
them in the morning, and if I like them, Ill pay you"
✔✔Enforcement of Promise - ✔✔for a court to enforce, both parties must provide valid
consideration, consideration by one party only is insufficient to support an enforceable
contract
✔✔Preexisting Duty Rule - ✔✔- Performance of a duty you are obligated to do under
the law is not consideration
- Performance of an existing contractual duty is not good consideration
✔✔Partial payment of a debt - ✔✔- Liquidated debt: no dispute that money is owed or
how much
- Unliquidated debt: the parties either disagree about whether money is owed of dispute
the amount - the parties can settle for less than the full amount if they enter into an
accord and satisfaction.
✔✔Accord "of?" Satisfaction - ✔✔settling to pay an unliquidated debt for less than the
amount requires:
- The debt is unliquidated
- The creditor agrees to accept as full payment less than it claims is owed
- The debtor pays the amount they have agreed on
✔✔Capacity (the third element of a legally binding contract) - ✔✔a person who has a
legal capacity has the mental ability to understand his or her rights and obligations
under a contract and therefore presumable to comply with the terms.
✔✔Emancipation - ✔✔- In most states a person is given full legal capacity to enter into
contracts when he or she becomes emancipated before reaching the age of majority.
- occurs when a minor's parents or legal guardians give up their right to exercise legal
control over the minor, typically when the minor moves out of the parents' house and
begin supporting himself or herself.
✔✔Disaffirmance by a Minor - ✔✔- Because their contracts are voidable, minors have
the right, until a reasonable time after reaching the age of majority, to disaffirm or avoid
their contract.
, - Note that it is only the minor who has the right to disaffirm, never the adult with whom
the minor entered into the agreement
✔✔Ratification by a minor - ✔✔once a person reaches the age of majority, he or she
may ratify, or legally affirm, contracts made as a minor.
✔✔Express ratification - ✔✔after reaching the age of majority the person states orally or
in writing that he or she intends to be bound by the contract enters as a minor
✔✔Implied ratification - ✔✔occurs when the former minor takes some action after
reaching the age of majority consistent with the intent to ratify the contract
✔✔Mentally Incapacitated Persons - ✔✔- contracts with a person with limited mental
capacity can be valid, voidable, or void, depending on the circumstances
- If a person suffers from delusions that may impair his judgement, but he can still
understand that he is entering into a contact and understand his obligations under the
contract, his contract is valid.
- If his delusions prevent him from understanding that he is entering into a contract or
the nature and extent of his obligations under the contract his contract is voidable
unless he has been adjudicated insane, his contract is void.
✔✔Intoxicated persons - ✔✔- When the intoxicated person becomes sober, the contact
can be ratified or disaffirmed; however, the courts will fairly liberally interpret behavior
that seems like ratifying the contract once the intoxicated person becomes sober.
- If the contract is disaffirmed on the basis of intoxication, each party must return the
other to the condition he or she was in at any time they entered into the contract.
✔✔Agreement to commit a crime or tort - ✔✔- Contracts cannot be for illegal purposes
or require illegal acts for performance
- Any agreement to commit a crime or tort is illegal, void, and unenforceable
✔✔Unconscionable contracts - ✔✔- agreement in question is so unfair that it is void of
conscience and may be enforceable....
- Requires:
i. Procedural unconscionability
ii. Substantive unconscionability
✔✔Legal assent - ✔✔a promise the courts will require the parties to obey
✔✔Absence of legal assent - ✔✔- without legal assent the contract may be voidable, a
circumstance that can cost a business large profit when the transaction is significant
- A voidable contract can rescinded, or canceled, permitting the person who cancelled
the contract to require the return of everything she gave the other party
2025/2026 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Adequacy of consideration - ✔✔- court seldom requires this... the court does not
weigh whether you made a good bargain
- Exception: if the court believes fraud or undue influence occurred, the court may look
at adequacy of consideration.
✔✔Illusory promise - ✔✔is not a promise, is not a consideration
- Example: Shawn offers to sell molly his skis for $300, and Molly responds "I'll look at
them in the morning, and if I like them, Ill pay you"
✔✔Enforcement of Promise - ✔✔for a court to enforce, both parties must provide valid
consideration, consideration by one party only is insufficient to support an enforceable
contract
✔✔Preexisting Duty Rule - ✔✔- Performance of a duty you are obligated to do under
the law is not consideration
- Performance of an existing contractual duty is not good consideration
✔✔Partial payment of a debt - ✔✔- Liquidated debt: no dispute that money is owed or
how much
- Unliquidated debt: the parties either disagree about whether money is owed of dispute
the amount - the parties can settle for less than the full amount if they enter into an
accord and satisfaction.
✔✔Accord "of?" Satisfaction - ✔✔settling to pay an unliquidated debt for less than the
amount requires:
- The debt is unliquidated
- The creditor agrees to accept as full payment less than it claims is owed
- The debtor pays the amount they have agreed on
✔✔Capacity (the third element of a legally binding contract) - ✔✔a person who has a
legal capacity has the mental ability to understand his or her rights and obligations
under a contract and therefore presumable to comply with the terms.
✔✔Emancipation - ✔✔- In most states a person is given full legal capacity to enter into
contracts when he or she becomes emancipated before reaching the age of majority.
- occurs when a minor's parents or legal guardians give up their right to exercise legal
control over the minor, typically when the minor moves out of the parents' house and
begin supporting himself or herself.
✔✔Disaffirmance by a Minor - ✔✔- Because their contracts are voidable, minors have
the right, until a reasonable time after reaching the age of majority, to disaffirm or avoid
their contract.
, - Note that it is only the minor who has the right to disaffirm, never the adult with whom
the minor entered into the agreement
✔✔Ratification by a minor - ✔✔once a person reaches the age of majority, he or she
may ratify, or legally affirm, contracts made as a minor.
✔✔Express ratification - ✔✔after reaching the age of majority the person states orally or
in writing that he or she intends to be bound by the contract enters as a minor
✔✔Implied ratification - ✔✔occurs when the former minor takes some action after
reaching the age of majority consistent with the intent to ratify the contract
✔✔Mentally Incapacitated Persons - ✔✔- contracts with a person with limited mental
capacity can be valid, voidable, or void, depending on the circumstances
- If a person suffers from delusions that may impair his judgement, but he can still
understand that he is entering into a contact and understand his obligations under the
contract, his contract is valid.
- If his delusions prevent him from understanding that he is entering into a contract or
the nature and extent of his obligations under the contract his contract is voidable
unless he has been adjudicated insane, his contract is void.
✔✔Intoxicated persons - ✔✔- When the intoxicated person becomes sober, the contact
can be ratified or disaffirmed; however, the courts will fairly liberally interpret behavior
that seems like ratifying the contract once the intoxicated person becomes sober.
- If the contract is disaffirmed on the basis of intoxication, each party must return the
other to the condition he or she was in at any time they entered into the contract.
✔✔Agreement to commit a crime or tort - ✔✔- Contracts cannot be for illegal purposes
or require illegal acts for performance
- Any agreement to commit a crime or tort is illegal, void, and unenforceable
✔✔Unconscionable contracts - ✔✔- agreement in question is so unfair that it is void of
conscience and may be enforceable....
- Requires:
i. Procedural unconscionability
ii. Substantive unconscionability
✔✔Legal assent - ✔✔a promise the courts will require the parties to obey
✔✔Absence of legal assent - ✔✔- without legal assent the contract may be voidable, a
circumstance that can cost a business large profit when the transaction is significant
- A voidable contract can rescinded, or canceled, permitting the person who cancelled
the contract to require the return of everything she gave the other party
