Contract and the employment of workers
A contract, either written or oral is a legal agreement made by parties when having a commitment to doing something. There must be contract for any commercial relations to work well. These relations under contracts help employees, and all other stakeholders to form relations where they understand their roles and responsibilities well. In contracts, rights are well established such that each of the parties know what they do. During employment of workers, the employer gives the employee a contract in which all the responsibility, and terms and regulations are well laid. For organizations to have employees, they present a contract to its employees where the employer has the greatest power over the employee since the employer gives duties and how the jobs should be done. In the contract between the employers and the employees, the employees provide their labour to the company (Vettori 2007, p. 87).
It is through the contract that both the employees and employer establish a relationship in which they work. This is because the agreement formed between the employee and the employer helps each stick to the terms and conditions voluntarily. A contract is used to draw a line between which the employer and employee behave in the organization. It is through the contracts that employers know their rights such as the pay, leaves, benefits and un-wrongful dismissal among other things (Brodie 2005, p. 107).
The terms of the contract specifies the responsibilities of each party in the organization, and each knows what they are supposed to do. These responsibilities are written or said to the employees for them to agree to them when signing the contract. A contract is made once the employee signs the offer and signs upon it. When this is done, the employer is sure that the employee has accepted the offer and will act according to the specifications of the contract. A contract in employment is meant to prevent any form of disputes that may arise in future since both the employer and the employee can go back to the contract to see what they agreed upon. In cases where the contract is breached, remedy is given by the party going contrary to the contract and it’s given to the affected party (Seweryński 2003, p. 123-7).
Contracts and the relationship between suppliers of precision equipment in India to its customer in the UK
During sales of goods and services, there is usually a contract signed between the parties to establish the kind of relationship the two parties work. The contract is made for the parties involved in the sales of goods to conform to the rights and obligations in the contract. There must have been a contract between the supplier of the precision equipment in India and the customer in UK. The supplier must have placed an offer and the offer accepted by the buyer in UK for there to be a contract. In this contract, both the supplier and the buyer must have placed there responsibilities well for each to understand that which the other party requires from each of them. It is through this contract that each will act upon to make sure that each of the party is served as desired. The transfer and delivery of the equipment by the supplier must conform to the contract made between the buyer and the seller. The buyer on the other hand should be required by the contract to accept the goods. Upon reception of goods, the buyer should make sure that the goods are desirable and that conform to the entire requirement. Through the contract therefore, there is a relationship upon which each party work (Atiyah, Adams & MacQueen 2005, p. 413).
Through the contract, the buyer and the seller agree on the appropriateness of the goods offered and that they perform well. If the contract made does not conform to the deeds of either of the party, then it becomes a breach of contract, and the remedies are made to the affected party (Sealy & Hooley 2008, p. 907).
Without a contract during the sales of goods and services, there would be a un effective relationship which would harm them. For example, without a contract that guides the duties and requirements of each of the party, there would be late delivery of goods or there would be delivery of faulty goods to the buyer. On the other hand, the supplier would be harmed if the goods are not received as required, and the payments are delayed. A contract thus makes sure that a good relationship is established between the buyer and the seller to execute transactions effectively (Goode & McKendrick 2011, p. 222).
With a contract, payments are done as agreed in the contract, and are delivered in the right form and amount. All that is required to be done by the seller and the buyer is written in the terms and conditions of the contract and every one in the contract is aware of them.
Frustration of a contract for personal services
Personal services are those services that only a certain individual can give as required. A different person cannot offer personal services he or she does not know about. These personal services include music, artists, writers and actors. The personal services are not always possessed, and are seen as talents. A different person cannot perform a personal contract. Contracts are made between people with personal services and the employers, and once contracted, the personal service offeree must conform to the contract made between then since the employer wanted the services and it’s difficult to get a different person with the same kind of services. In cases where the service provider fails to conform to the terms of the contract, they become liable for breach of contract. When the company seeks for some personal services, they want to retain them because these people possess unique services (Stone, 2002, p. 47-56).
Contracts in personal services are meant to form a relationship between the employee and the employer since they know the terms of the services and agree to them. The contract defines the relationship between the employee and the employer. If the employee agrees with the terms and conditions of service, they sign it. It is the employers who create or writes the contract and gives it out to the employees. In cases where the employee does not agree to the terms of service, they create a counter proposal that would suit their working conditions. In other cases, the employer may refuse to hire the employees until the employee agrees to the terms of the services. The employee must negotiate for the conditions and terms that suits them when offering their services so that they may not end up working for the employer without any benefits for them (Collins 2003, p. 304).
Personal service contractors are responsible for drafting the contracts which are given to the employees for the personal service contracts. Personal contract services are therefore one-sided since the employer has more rights over the employee. The employee is very inflexible since whatever the employer writes in the contract is final. This is the reason as to why the employee must negotiate the terms and read the contracts well before signing them.
A serious ankle injury sustained by a visitor to the premises of a company, where faulty stairs tread has been reported by a cleaner three weeks before
In this area, a contract does not apply since it is a case of negligent by the company. It was negligent for the company to stay with broken stairs even after the cleaner reported it. Staying with a faulty stair tread harmed the visitor. It was unreasonable for the company to stay with broken stairs since a reasonable company under the same situation would have repaired it as soon as the fault was reported. It was not expected that the company act in the manner it did, and it was not a prudent conduct (Beever 2009, p. 420).
It is the responsibility of the company to have safe environment for its visitors and make sure that no body is harmed. In this case, the company failed to take care of its visitors by departing from its duty. By neglecting its care duty, the company failed to have a good relationship with its visitors since the visitor was harmed at the company’s premise. It is noted that the faulty had been reported to the company by the cleaner but the company continued to expose its visitors to the harm, and this breaches the company’s duty of care.
To prevent the harm caused to the visitor, the company should have acted reasonably by having somebody repair the fault. This could have safe guard the safety of the visitors and anyone else who used the stair treads. The company knew about the fault and intended to harm the visitor. As such therefore, the company should compensate the visitor for harming him. It was indeed out of the company’s negligent act that the visitor was injured (Davies 2008, p. 227).
The significance of the Articles of Association in a limited company
The articles of association are taken as contracts in the organization since they define the rules and regulations followed by the stakeholders of the organization to guide in the operations. As such, articles of association are taken as contracts in the limited companies. In the articles of association, the management of the company is set. In addition, the structure and internal affairs of the company are set. This way, the articles of association serve as a contract between the members of an organization and the organization. The acts of the limited company determine the drafting of the articles of association by the company. As a contract, the articles of association state the roles and responsibilities of each member and operation in the organization, by clearly setting the terms and conditions of each operation. This makes it easy for each member in the organization to attend their duties as stated (Goulding 1999, p. 94).
The articles of association are interpreted extensively depending on their commercial purposes. When well drafted, the articles of association solve the internal conflicts present in the organization. it is important for every member in the organization to read and understand the articles of association in their company to work in an effective relationship for them to achieve the goals set by the company. In understanding of the articles of association, the members work to achieve the common goal of making the company more productive (Bourne 1998, p. 63-98).
The purported contract
The director of the spurious company formed a contract between Jones and the company. This means that spurious company and Jones had a contract where Jones was obligated to do a project involving software design for a new video game. In the contract, Jones was promised to be given a price after completing the work assigned (McKendrick 2009, p. 117).
All elements of a contract were present in the contract between Jones and the company. The company gave an offer, which the company would pay Jones after completing the Jones in case he accepted the offer to do the job. Acceptance was created after the terms of the contract were communicated to him by smith through the email. In the email, smith communicated to Jones the price of doing the job (Finch & Fafinski 2011, 39-181). Additionally, the schedule for interim stages when the reports and details of the work could be given to the company and the dates for completion of the work were stated in the contract. Jones accepted the offer by sending a thank you email to smith and started working on the job given to him. In the offer by the company, it did not give any specific way through which the acceptance would be made. Jones in this case knew that there was an offer by the company, and accepted it. Consideration by parties is evidenced by the fact that there was a price to be offered after completion of the job given to Jones. The two parties therefore had obligations to perform as seen in the contract through them. The company wrongfully dismissed Jones from working for them soon after smith stopped working for the company. Jones was dismissed the last day he was supposed to complete the project to get his pay. The company is therefore liable for damages since it was the party that breached the contract between them. Jones indeed accepted the contract by sending a thank you note, and started working on the project as soon as the message was sent.
The IP in the ‘novel software’ process
The novel soft ware process was invented by Jones while he stilled worked for the company. During one of Jones presentations on the progress of the project, Jones mentioned that the software he had invented was patentable. Since the software was invented while working for the company, the company has a right to patent it as its property. The party that invented the software should thus patent it since it has al the information as it pertains to the software. This is because the party patenting the invention must define it to make sure that it is original for it to pass the requirements. According to this case, Jones knew that he was in a contract with the company he worked for, and this is the reason why he mentioned about the invention in the presentation he made. He knew that since he was working for the company, the company had the right to patent the invention. However, this is not how things turned since he was dismissed from the company as if there was no contract between them. As such, Jones has all the right to claim for the invention because the company does not recognise him as their employee (Lockton 2011, p. 201).
Since the company terminated Jones from working for it, it should not patent the invention Jones invented. In the case the company patented the invention it becomes theft of the patent since the company does not recognise the contract between it and Jones. The company in this case is therefore liable for damages, and Jones is the right owner in case his contract with the company is not recognised (Duddington 2003, p. 267).
Jones’ claim for money for the work done
It is legal for Jones to claim the money he worked for since he had entered a contract with the company, which specified that after completing the work assigned Jones would be paid. All along the duration which Jones worked for the company, he adhered to the terms of the contract in his working. As the contract required, Jones gave interim reports to show the progress of the project. On the other hand, the company breached the contract by dismissing Jones from working for it and refused to pay him for the work done (Yew 2001, p. 87). It is legal for Jones to sue the company since it breached the contract and failed to conform to it. While smith worked for the company, he had created a contract between the company and Jones, and had agreed to pay Jones after he completed working for the company. Jones should be compensated since he is the affected party. The company should pay Jones and compensate his damaged reputation as well as get all the benefits accrued to him (Kelly & Slapper 2011, p. 601).
To genuinely terminate the contract, the company should have given notice to Jones. In this case however, Jones only received an email on the completion of the project dismissing him from working for the company from then, and refused to pay him. Jones had adhered to the requirements of the job and the company had no reason to deny him his payment.
The defamation claim
It was not right for Jones to call smith a crook since smith acted professionally while working for spurious company. By calling smith a crook, Jones defames smith. It shows that smith is bent person, which is not the truth since smith acted professionally during the time he worked for the company. During the time Jones was dismissed from the company, smith had ceased working for the company. This thus shows that Jones had no reason to call smith a crook. It is illegal for Jones to publicise smith as a crook since this affects smith’s reputation. Jones names smith’s name to the public to make his identification easy. Basing on this case, smith was a straight character while he worked for spurious company. Jones should therefore prove his allegations. It is therefore right for smith to sue Jones over defamation claims for him to be compensated for the damages (Mitchell 2005, p. 211).
On the other hand, the company cheated Jones and made him believe that they had entered a contract. The company formed a contract with Jones, which it did not conform to. It was not right for the company to refuse paying Jones because he had followed all the requirements as stated in the contract between them. Jones allegations are true since the company had indeed cheated him (Price 2001, p. 432).
References
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