Question

1. Preexisting Duty Preexisting Duty Introduction Read the overview below and complete the activities that follow. In this activity, you will be determining what constitutes a preexisting duty. Pay special attention to the different exceptions to the preexisting duty rule, specifically unforeseen circumstances, additional work, and the UCC exceptions. CONCEPT REVIEW: For a court to enforce a promise, both sides must offer consideration. Sometimes issues arise when a valid consideration is not offered by one party. For example, a promise to do something that you are already obligated to do is not valid consideration, because you have a preexisting duty. There are two parts to the preexisting duty rule. First, performance of a duty you are obligated to do under the law is not good consideration. Moreover , performance of an existing contractual duty is not good consideration either. Highlight each title below to reveal a scenario. Read the scenario and then determine whether there is valid consideration. If the person has a preexisting duty, there is no valid consideration. NO YES Additional Work UCC 2-209 The person has a preexisting duty and therefore, there is no valid consideration This scenario is an exception to the preexisting duty rule and valid Fonsideration exists Unforeseen Circumstance Government Employee Firefighter Reset

Answer 1

The pre-exiting duty rule is a corollary to the requirement of consideration. Because consideration that makes contacts enforcable must be bargained for, consideration cannot consist of performance that the party had a pre-existing duty to perform. If the party was legally required to do something in any case, then agreeing to do that very thing is not new considetation that needs to have been bagained for by the other party.

Therefore, a party's offer of a performance already required under an existing contract, employment term or law is insufficient consideration for a new contract or the modification of an existing contract.

While the pre-existig duty rule applies today, these and other concerns have given rise to several exemptions to the rule which are:

1. Modification of the Contract:-

Let us take an example, A Plumber agrees to replace all the piping inside a home with copper pipes, but before the project starts, the price of copper skyrockets and it is no longer financially feasible for the plumber to replace the pipe. The plumber might reasonally ask the homeowner for additional payment to cover the cost of the increase in the price of the copper. However, even if the homeowner agrees to this modifications, the modification may no be binding under the pre-existing duty rule since the plumber had a pre-existing duty to replace the piping with copper before the modification. But if plumber, in reliance of that assurance, hired a high- quality subcontractor to work on the piping, this good faith reliance on the modification may casue the modification to be enforceable.

2. Unanticipated Circumstances:-

The unanticipated circumstances lead to the parties to agree upon a reasonable contract modification. Examples of unanticiapted circumstances leading to required contract modification include- Strikes, Shortages, Economic Depressions, War and Changed construction conditions.

When parties agre in response to these unanticipated emergencies, agree to modification in good faith, the modification are enforceable in spite of the fact that the called-for performance was pre-existing under the original agreement.

3. Uniform Commercial Code:-

UCC apllies to the contracts for the sale of goods, also substantially modifies the pre-existing duty rule. The UCC modifies the rule because it wants to assure contracting parties the ability to freely adapt to changing circumstances.

So in the above senerio stated, no such information related to unanticiapted circumstance, UCC and modification is given so we wil assume tha no such situation exis so it will be NO because person has the pre-existing duty and therefore there is no valid consideration . But if any one of the above situation arise then it will be treated as the valid consideration and enforecable by law. Before coming to any conclusion we should refer to the above stated eemption to better under the situation and the nwe should analysis it where it will be enforceable by law or not.