PA Bar Contracts 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under Pennsylvania contract law, which element is NOT required for an enforceable contract?
- Offer
- Acceptance
- Consideration
- A written document (Correct answer)
Correct answer: A written document
Pennsylvania recognizes oral contracts as enforceable; a written document is not required unless a specific statute (such as the Statute of Frauds) mandates writing.
Question 2: Pennsylvania's Statute of Frauds requires a writing for contracts involving the sale of goods for $500 or more under:
- The Restatement (Second) of Contracts
- Pennsylvania's adoption of UCC Article 2
- The Pennsylvania Commercial Code § 2201 (Correct answer)
- Common law parol evidence rule
Correct answer: The Pennsylvania Commercial Code § 2201
Under 13 Pa. C.S. § 2201 (Pennsylvania's UCC Article 2), contracts for the sale of goods priced at $500 or more must be evidenced by a writing signed by the party against whom enforcement is sought.
Question 3: Under Pennsylvania law, which doctrine prevents enforcement of a contract term that is oppressively one-sided and was imposed on a weaker party without meaningful choice?
- Promissory estoppel
- Unconscionability (Correct answer)
- Mutual mistake
- Anticipatory repudiation
Correct answer: Unconscionability
Pennsylvania courts apply the unconscionability doctrine to refuse enforcement of contract terms that are procedurally unconscionable (unfair bargaining) and substantively unconscionable (unfair terms).
Question 4: Under Pennsylvania law, promissory estoppel requires the plaintiff to prove that the defendant made a promise that:
- Was supported by consideration and reduced to writing
- The promisor should reasonably have expected to induce reliance, which did in fact cause detrimental reliance (Correct answer)
- Was made in a commercial context between merchants
- Was acknowledged by two disinterested witnesses
Correct answer: The promisor should reasonably have expected to induce reliance, which did in fact cause detrimental reliance
Pennsylvania applies promissory estoppel where a promise was made that the promisor reasonably should have expected to induce reliance, the promisee did detrimentally rely, and injustice can only be avoided by enforcement.
Question 5: When a contract is ambiguous, Pennsylvania courts apply the parol evidence rule to:
- Bar all extrinsic evidence regardless of the contract's clarity
- Allow extrinsic evidence only to explain or clarify ambiguous terms, not to contradict the written agreement (Correct answer)
- Admit prior oral agreements that vary the written contract's terms
- Require expert testimony about trade usage
Correct answer: Allow extrinsic evidence only to explain or clarify ambiguous terms, not to contradict the written agreement
Pennsylvania's parol evidence rule bars extrinsic evidence to vary or contradict an integrated written agreement but permits such evidence to clarify genuine ambiguities in the contract's terms.
Question 6: Under Pennsylvania law, which remedy places the non-breaching party in the position they would have been in had the contract been performed?
- Restitution
- Reliance damages
- Expectation damages (Correct answer)
- Nominal damages
Correct answer: Expectation damages
Expectation damages are designed to give the non-breaching party the benefit of the bargain by placing them in the economic position they would have occupied had the contract been fully performed.
PA Bar Contracts 1
Under Pennsylvania contract law, which element is NOT required for an enforceable contract?