Prepare a brief Memorandum in the same heading format as this memo (so you would have the To: "Adam Epstein" and From "Student," which would be your name).The purpose of this assignment is to determine whether you can "describe the essential elements of a contract."
You will be graded by me in terms of your understanding and analysis of the following scenario in terms of the degree to which you can "lead" me through the analysis of your discussion based upon what you have learned in BLR 302 up to this point. There is no pure right or wrong answer. However, please give a good faith (bona fide) effort!
Facts
Jade is a college student from CMU who is in her last semester. She is of sound mind and very motivated at age 21. A Michigan native, she has been offered two jobs, thankfully, with just 5 weeks to go: One in Michigan and one in Colorado.
In both cases, she receives an email from her potential employer which verifies and summaries her salary and the general terms of the offer which, hopefully, leads to a final two-year agreement that she would have to eventually print out, sign and return via U.S. Mail (though at this point in time, there is no requirement by her potential employers that she does so immediately). In fact, she did not receive the offer on paper from either company, but rather via the internet through email in a pdf file.
Though she did receive two offers, both companies required that she complete her undergraduate degree by the end of the semester (so that means she has to pass all her classes). If she does not complete her degree, then the job would not ultimately be given to her. However, there is no reason to believe that Jade is in trouble as she has at least a "B" in all her classes at this point and no other issues other than she did not receive as much Valentine's chocolate and did not receive a Teddy Bear either.
Anyway, Jade decides that she will accept the Colorado job. She writes back from her smartphone, via email, that she will accept the Colorado job! She then immediately rejects the Michigan job the same way, but wishes them well.
In both cases, the potential employers also had provided to her-via email-with the pdf file of their standard employee handbook which delineated the rights and responsibilities of both the employer and employee, if she were to accept.Jade did look these over before responding and accepting the Colorado job.
Questions Presented:
1. Can you describe the essential elements of a contract and what that might entail in this instance?
2. After Jade sent her email via her smartphone, but before she actually printed out and signed the contract, do you feel that a contract has been formed? If so, why do you believe this to be the case?