To advise Gabe as to whether his contract with Crane Entertainment is valid it needs to be established that the agreement formed between the two parties was indeed a contract, hence contract formation needs to be considered. Crane Entertainment made an offer of $750,000 for all development, production and promotional costs. Gabe considered his options and had the opportunity so accept or decline, therefore an offer was clearly made. Gabe’s acceptance was communicated over the phone and he signed the contract in person. It is evident that an agreement was reached. It is obvious that there was intent to create legal relations between the two parties, this is a commercial relationship between two companies.
For the agreement to become a contract there needs to be valuable consideration. The doctrine of consideration requires that …show more content…
A term of this nature would be considered unusual or onerous and needs to be given special notice: Interfoto Picture Library Ltd v Stiletto Visual Programs Ltd [1989] 2 QB 433. Another case highlighting the need for onerous terms to be brought to attention is Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking Ltd [1971] 2 QB 163. In this case Denning MR emphasised the need for reasonable notice stating unusual terms ‘would need to be printed in red ink with a red hand pointing to it – or something equally startling’.
Despite Voltage Tech could argue the incorporation of terms using the L’Estrange v Graucob rule. This rule was expressed by Scrutton LJ as ‘when a document containing contractual terms is signed…the party signing it is bound, and it is wholly immaterial whether he has read the document or not.’ It should be noted that the L’Estrange v Graucob rule also applies to electronically signed contracts. Therefore, Voltage Tech may claim that Gabe is subject to all of the terms and conditions presented in the hyperlink on the online order