SC Bar Contracts and Sales 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A merchant emails another merchant a signed offer to sell 500 widgets, stating the offer will remain open for 60 days. No consideration is given. May the offeror revoke after 45 days?
- No, a merchant firm offer is irrevocable for the stated period up to three months (Correct answer)
- Yes, because no consideration was paid for the option
- Yes, because firm offers only bind for 30 days
- No, because all written offers are irrevocable
Correct answer: No, a merchant firm offer is irrevocable for the stated period up to three months
Under UCC 2-205, a signed firm offer by a merchant is irrevocable without consideration for the time stated, up to three months.
Question 2: A buyer offers to purchase a car for $10,000. The seller replies, "I accept, provided you also pay for a new set of tires." Under common law, the seller's reply is:
- A counteroffer that rejects the original offer (Correct answer)
- A valid acceptance with an added term
- An acceptance because the change is minor
- A revocation of the buyer's offer
Correct answer: A counteroffer that rejects the original offer
Under the common law mirror image rule, an acceptance that varies the offer's terms operates as a rejection and counteroffer.
Question 3: A homeowner promises to pay a landscaper $500 for work the landscaper already completed voluntarily last month. Is the promise enforceable?
- No, because past consideration is not valid consideration (Correct answer)
- Yes, because the landscaper conferred a benefit
- Yes, because the promise is in writing
- No, unless the landscaper is a merchant
Correct answer: No, because past consideration is not valid consideration
Past consideration cannot support a new promise because the bargained-for exchange element is missing.
Question 4: A contractor agrees to build a deck for $8,000. Midway, the contractor demands $2,000 more to finish, and the owner agrees under common law. Absent unforeseen circumstances, the modification is:
- Unenforceable under the preexisting duty rule (Correct answer)
- Enforceable because both parties agreed
- Enforceable if made in good faith
- Unenforceable only if not in writing
Correct answer: Unenforceable under the preexisting duty rule
At common law, a promise to pay more for a duty already owed lacks consideration under the preexisting duty rule.
Question 5: A 17-year-old buys a laptop, uses it for a month, then seeks to disaffirm the contract in South Carolina. The minor may generally:
- Disaffirm and return the laptop in its current condition (Correct answer)
- Not disaffirm because the contract was partially performed
- Disaffirm only if the seller knew the buyer's age
- Not disaffirm because electronics are necessaries
Correct answer: Disaffirm and return the laptop in its current condition
A minor may disaffirm a contract for non-necessaries and generally need only return the goods in their current condition.
Question 6: An oral agreement to sell a parcel of land is followed by the buyer paying part of the price, taking possession, and building a barn. The seller raises the Statute of Frauds. The buyer's best argument is:
- The part performance doctrine takes the contract out of the Statute of Frauds (Correct answer)
- Land contracts never require a writing
- Payment alone always satisfies the statute
- The statute applies only to leases
Correct answer: The part performance doctrine takes the contract out of the Statute of Frauds
Part performance—typically payment plus possession or improvements—permits equitable enforcement of an oral land contract.
Question 7: A buyer and seller sign a fully integrated written contract for equipment. The buyer seeks to introduce evidence of a prior oral promise contradicting the delivery date. This evidence is:
- Barred by the parol evidence rule (Correct answer)
- Admissible as a consistent additional term
- Admissible because it is oral, not written
- Barred only if the seller objects in writing
Correct answer: Barred by the parol evidence rule
The parol evidence rule bars prior agreements that contradict the terms of a fully integrated writing.
SC Bar Contracts and Sales 2
A merchant emails another merchant a signed offer to sell 500 widgets, stating the offer will remain open for 60 days.
No consideration is given.
May the offeror revoke after 45 days?