Contract: Counter-offer situation (1 Viewer)

[sandra]

can anyone please explain what the terms of the contract would be if a person says will give u X in a couple of yrs if u agree to stay working for me and work an additional day extra, and the person sais ok ill stay but u have to give me additional overtime for that extra day..

does this mean the original offer of X is rejected and the new terms are -additional overtime pay for staying at the job and working extra day OR X and overtime pay for the extra day if u stay and work here and do the aditional day a week..

sorry if its confusing..

 

[hfis]

Re: counter offers

It is confusing, but mainly because of the manner in which you chose to express the problem.

An answer to your problem is hard to determine because you have not given us greater insight into the communication that occured between the parties. Let's reconsider it in three different ways with star actors Jim and Bob:

Jim: If you continue to work for me, and then work one additional day, I will give you X.
Bob: I agree to that, but only if I get overtime for the extra day.
Jim: Accepted

In this case the offer has been remade by Bob on Jim's original terms, plus the extra provision for overtime which he has decided to include. I would say that were the correspondance similar to what has occured here, then the terms of the contract allow for X plus the overtime requested by Bob/your plaintiff.

Jim: If you continue to work for me, and then work one additional day, I will give you X.
Bob: Give me overtime for the extra day and I'll do it.
Jim: This is a clear an unequivocal acceptance of your counter offer.

In this case it becomes a bit more ambiguous, and so a little harder to discern how a court would interpret the matter. However, I would say that Bob's counter offer, in contrast to the previous example, has a limited scope here - he is merely requesting overtime for the additional day, and appears to have completely disregarded the offer of X. Thus, in this case, I would say that the terms of the contract made provision for the overtime, and nothing more.

Jim: If you continue to work for me, and then work one additional day, I will give you X.
Bob: This is a counter offer.
Jim: Fuck you, I'll outsource it.

This should be pretty obvious. The example you gave did not state how, or indeed if, the original offeror accepted his counter offer. Further negotiation/no acceptance = no contract. I'm pretty positive you'll have the relevant authority for this in your casebook.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Re: counter offers

This is my understanding of the situation:

A: If you continue to work for me, and work an extra day, I will give you X in a couple of years.
B: I agree to that if you give me overtime for the extra day.
A: I accept that. / I reject that.

Clearly, in this case A makes an offer, B makes a counter-offer, and A either rejects or accepts that counter-offer. If A accepts, then the terms are that B will continue to work for A, that B will work an extra day, that B will be paid overtime for the extra day, and that B will be paid X in a couple of years.

Whatever happens, if this is a real-life issue, I vehemently urge you to put any sort of agreement in writing.

 

[Angel45]

Re: counter offers

I HAVE SIMILAR QUESTION:

Alex says to Jill: I will give you $1000 in 3 years if you agree not leave town and u must kiss me on Friday’s, not just mon-thurs”.
Jill says: “I will stay, but I want a holiday for kissing you on friday.”
Alex says: “You’re a tough girl, but okay, a holiday it is.”

So… does that mean he still owes her $1000 after 3 yrs if she stayed in town.
Or is the contract just:
Jill: “ I will not leave town, but u have to give me a holiday for kissing you on Friday’s”.
Alex: “Okay, holiday”

I get that a counter offer means the original offer is rejected and there can only be a contract when the counter offer is accepted but what becomes the terms of the contract??? Just the counter offer and acceptance of it… or also the stuff from the original… because in your counter offer u may only talk about one small part rather than go through the whole contract….but then how can u say the whole contract now is just on that one small part.

Also, could the promise to give her $1000 be said form a collateral contract... coz she may have entered the main contract on the basis of that promise.

 

[M@C D@DDY]

Re: counter offers

I HAVE SIMILAR QUESTION:

Alex says to Jill: I will give you $1000 in 3 years if you agree not leave town and u must kiss me on Friday’s, not just mon-thurs”.
Jill says: “I will stay, but I want a holiday for kissing you on friday.”
Alex says: “You’re a tough girl, but okay, a holiday it is.”

So… does that mean he still owes her $1000 after 3 yrs if she stayed in town.
Or is the contract just:
Jill: “ I will not leave town, but u have to give me a holiday for kissing you on Friday’s”.
Alex: “Okay, holiday”

I get that a counter offer means the original offer is rejected and there can only be a contract when the counter offer is accepted but what becomes the terms of the contract??? Just the counter offer and acceptance of it… or also the stuff from the original… because in your counter offer u may only talk about one small part rather than go through the whole contract….but then how can u say the whole contract now is just on that one small part.

Also, could the promise to give her $1000 be said form a collateral contract... coz she may have entered the main contract on the basis of that promise.

My understanding of this is that the original offer is effectively rejected when a counter offer is made (RA Brierley Investments Ltd v Landmark Corp Ltd). So in this case by jill inserting a new condition in the contract(ie. the holiday), they have only reached quid quo pro on that element and nothing else. Also i cannot see that it is a collateral contract, based on what i have said above (and i thought it was a heavy burden of proof through the Hoyt's test, also usually only used to counter the PER). My knowledge of contracts is a little scratchy after one year, so feel free to challenge what i have said.

 

[Omnidragon]

Re: counter offers

I HAVE SIMILAR QUESTION:

Alex says to Jill: I will give you $1000 in 3 years if you agree not leave town and u must kiss me on Friday’s, not just mon-thurs”.
Jill says: “I will stay, but I want a holiday for kissing you on friday.”
Alex says: “You’re a tough girl, but okay, a holiday it is.”

So… does that mean he still owes her $1000 after 3 yrs if she stayed in town.
Or is the contract just:
Jill: “ I will not leave town, but u have to give me a holiday for kissing you on Friday’s”.
Alex: “Okay, holiday”

I get that a counter offer means the original offer is rejected and there can only be a contract when the counter offer is accepted but what becomes the terms of the contract??? Just the counter offer and acceptance of it… or also the stuff from the original… because in your counter offer u may only talk about one small part rather than go through the whole contract….but then how can u say the whole contract now is just on that one small part.

Also, could the promise to give her $1000 be said form a collateral contract... coz she may have entered the main contract on the basis of that promise.

Everything is ascertained objectively. Since limited facts are supplied, one can only look to the words for guidance.

Since she did not in any way allude to the $1000 in her counter-offer, I take it that the counter-offer as ascertained objectively does not include the $1000 condition. Alex's response would also fall squarely in line with the conclusion that the contract formed is to exchange a holiday for a kiss...

This situation is different from JS Robertson where, upon clear 'acceptance' of the original terms, the plaintiff then proceeded to request for sole distribution.