Organising an Event: Staging an Event
A contract is a mutual agreement which is enforceable in a court of law. The year thirteen business studies team organizing the Prague trip for the year twelve students had signed several contracts thereby agreeing to them. There is a criterion that each contract must have passed in order to be enforceable by law. The contract must be an offer. Therefore the business or individual must have supplied goods and services to another party i.e. the year twelve and thirteen business students and staff. The offer of the contract must have also been accepted by the business or individual providing the goods and services. Once the contract has been accepted by both parties, a payment of the supply of goods and services by the customer can be considered.
At Tuesday 29th January 2008, letters went out to the Parents of the year twelve and thirteen students concerning a parents evening based on the Prague trip. This was a contract offer since the year thirteen business studies team (the business), were providing a service for the year twelve students that required the parents/guardians (the other party) to accept the offer made by this team. For the parent letter to be a two-way agreement, both party representatives must have signed to it. On this letter, a representative of the year thirteen business team ‘Miss Carter’ had signed the letter agreeing to the offer it stated. All it required was for parents to sign the parents evening slip and return it to the representative. Therefore, the parents who signed to this slip accepted the contract, and those that failed to denied it.
The disagreement of signing the contract or the actual contract may occur because the parent may have more important commitments to attend to, or the parent may not have permitted their child to go on the Prague trip. If the contract has been signed mutually and one party has failed to fulfil the requirements of the contract, then necessary legal action can be taken. For example, if parents sign the contract and fail to turn up for the parents evening, legal action is permitted to be carried out. However, since there are no financial requirements in this contract, this would not be necessary. Since the parents letter did not request any financial payments, a payment for the supply of the service (i.e. parents evening) was not necessary, verifying the parents letter is legal and can be enforceable by law. An example of this contract is as follows:
COACH TRANSPORT CONTRACT
A year thirteen business studies team representative ‘Louise Conyard’ emailed the coach letter she received after requesting a coach for the Prague trip, to another team representative ‘Laura Port’ to show Miss Crook so it can be provisionally booked, at 17th January 2008, who had legal responsibility to approve the Prague trip at all levels. This was a letter which the school had to accept by signing, agreeing to the offer of the ‘Silverdale’ coach service (other party) for the Prague trip which had been signed by the coach company, and just needed a year thirteen business team representative to sign the contract. The letter was signed both ways and then the coach services were paid for later on, making it a legal contract enforceable by law, so both parties have the right to carry out necessary legal action.
For instance, such legal action may be suing the coach company for not providing the transport services paid and requested for at the right place, at the right time. In this case, the coach parked at the Marlborough school parking zone at 2pm on Friday 22nd February 2008. This action may have occurred because a disagreement may occur between both parties i.e. the business and the customer. As a result, in reality the coach came twenty-five minutes early than it was supposed to be at the school, thereby fulfilling the contract’s requirements.
EUROPEAN STUDY TOURS CONTRACT
At 17th December 2008, a year 13 business team representative ‘Miss Carter’ had to do a firm booking for the Prague trip and later received a letter which had to be approved by Miss Crook. This was a contract offer since European Study Tours were providing a school trip service (business) that required the year thirteen business team (the other party) to accept this offer made by the tour company. For this letter provided by European Study Tours (EST) to be a two-way agreement, it required the signature of Miss Crook, since a representative from EST has already provided their signature. For the declaration of this letter as a legal contract, it had to be paid for by the other party i.e. the year thirteen business studies for EST to provide their services. As a result, the services were paid for making it a legal contract enforceable by law, so both parties have the right to carry out necessary legal action.
This can be deduced by:
For example, if European Study tours fail to fulfil all the terms of the contract made with their customers i.e. the year thirteen business studies team, like providing accommodation for the students and staff at ‘Park Hotel’ in Prague, then the team is entitled to sue them for not doing so i.e. if the claim is worth being pursued. As a result, EST did provide accommodation at Park Hotel as they promised to, fulfilling the contract’s accommodation requirements for students and staff.
