TYPES OF CONTRACTS.

To begin with I would like to determine the term “contracts”. Contracts are promises that the law will enforce. Contracts have a lot of types and several terms are used to describe the different kinds of contracts:

Contracts may be bilateral or unilateral depending on whether one or both of the parties made a promise.

The more common of the two, a bilateral contract, is an agreement in which each of the parties to the contract makes a promise or promises to the other party. For example, in a contract for the sale of a home, the buyer promises to pay the seller $200,000 in exchange for the seller's promise to deliver title to the property.

In a unilateral contract, only one of the parties makes a promise. The other party performs an act in exchange for that promise. For example, Mary runs an ad in the paper offering a $25 reward for the return of her lost dog, Sparky. Mary has made a promise to pay the person who performs the act of returning Sparky. Sara is not obliged to find Mary's dog, but Mary is obliged to pay the reward to Sara if Sara finds the dog.

A valid contract is one that meets all the legal requirements for a contract. Valid contracts are therefore enforceable in court.

An unenforceable contract is one that meets the basic legal requirements for a contract but will not be enforced due to some other legal rule. For example, in the United States, a contract is unenforceable if it violates the . An example of the above is an oral contract for the sale of a motorcycle for 5,000 (because in the any contract for the sale of goods over US$500 must be in writing to be enforceable).

A voidable contract is one that may be cancelled by one or both of the parties. It is enforceable against both parties unless a party with the right to cancel the contract has done so. Contracts with minor are examples of voidable contracts.

The void contract lacks one or more of the basic requirements for a contract. Such an agreement has no legal force or effect. For example, a contract is void if it is based on an illegal purpose or contrary to ; the classic example is a contract with a . Such a contract will not be recognized by a court, and cannot be enforced by either party.

A contract is express when the parties have directly stated its terms at the time the contract was formed. They may have done this orally or in writing. So, when Bill tells Joe, "I'll sell you my 1983 Camaro for $10,000," and Joe replies, "You've got a deal," an express contract has been created.

There are many cases, however, in which the parties have clearly reached an agreement, even though they have not expressly stated its terms. When the surrounding facts and circumstances indicate that an agreement has in fact been reached, an implied contract is created. Suppose you go to your dentist for treatment. Ordinarily you would not expressly state the terms of your mutual agreement beforehand, although it is clear that you do, in fact, have an agreement. A court would infer a promise on the part of your dentist to use reasonable care in treating you and a promise on your part to pay a reasonable fee for the dentist's services.

A contract is executed when all the parties have fully performed their duties under the contract. A contract is executory as long as it has not been fully performed. A contract is partially executory when one person has performed his promise under the contract, but the other person has not performed hers.

A quasi contract is a legal fiction created by the court to avoid injustice. The basic idea is that quasi contract applies where one of the parties voluntarily receives a benefit from the other party under circumstances that make it unfair to keep the benefit without paying for it.