Genuine Consent Case Study

George needs to see an attorney as soon as possible. Not to see what steps he can take to save his home, but to ensure the contract he signed with Easy Finance is voided. For a contract to be valid it must have seven essential components satisfied. They are offer, acceptance, consideration, legal intent, capacity, legal object and genuine consent. If one of these elements is not adequately satisfied the contract is not legal and binding. In George’s case, the contract between him and Easy Finance is not enforceable for the mortgage as well as Lily’s default because George was under undue influence when he signed the contract. His consent to the agreement was not genuine and legally speaking, there is no deal between him and Easy Finance.
Duress and undue influence both affect the genuine consent element of a contract. While George was not necessarily under duress to sign the papers, he was under undue influence from both Lily and the loan officer at Easy Finance. Fragasi explains undue influence as, “subtle. Like duress it results in one party loses his free will to contract out. However it occurs more frequently when a person is in a superior or dominant position in relation to another and uses this influential position to induce the other to enter in the contract.” This was certainly the case with Lily as George relied on her for everything and she didn’t even tell him the truth about what the loan was for. Also, the loan officer did not want George to hire an attorney to review the paperwork because he not have been found of sound mind to enter into a contract. Therefore, this contract should be voidable, as George was heavily influenced to sign a document under false
pretenses, was not afforded the opportunity for legal representation, pressure was brought to bear on him to sign documents he didn’t know what they really were and he probably did not possess the mental acuity to enter into the contract.

Bibliography

Frascati, Luigi. Fundamentals of Contract Law. Ezinearticles.com. October 13, 2005. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Fundamentals-of-Contract-Law&id=82686.