Do you know the elements of an enforceable Oklahoma contract?

It’s one thing to make an Oklahoma “contract” but it is an entirely different and more valuable thing to make an “enforceable Oklahoma contract.”  

So what are the elements of an enforceable Oklahoma contract?  See below:

The Definition

An enforceable Oklahoma contract is . . .

“an agreement to do or not to do a certain thing.”

This is a simple statement but critical if you want to make contracts that are enforceable. Without all the required elements, you can still make contract . . . you just can’t enforce them!

The Elements

The elements of an enforceable Oklahoma contract are:

CAPACITY

Parties capable of contracting.

OFFER

An offer by one party;

ACCEPTANCE

An acceptance by the other party; and

CONSIDERATION

Each party must voluntarily give something of value or promise to give something of value in exchange for what the other gives or promises.

 

That is it. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Yet thousands of court cases in Oklahoma alone has grappled with seemingly simple elements for over 100 years.

 An example

I can promise to pay you $1,000,000.00 in 90 days. You can whole-heartedly accept my promise. When 90 days comes and goes and I don’t pay you the money, do you think you can win a lawsuit against me to recover the money?

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Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."