Business Law
GM597

Week One Homework Problems:

9.4 No, Winkle does not receive the profit-sharing bonus. Under the equitable doctrine of quasicontract, a court may award monetary damages to a plaintiff for providing work or services to a defendant even though no actual contract existed between the parties. This doctrine does not apply where there is an enforceable contract between the parties. In this case, there was a written employment contract between the parties. Thus, for Winkle to be entitled to the profitsharing bonus the court must find that the written employment contract was altered in writing or by an executed oral contract.

Winkle testified that the agreement to receive profitsharing was an oral agreement. Thus, the question becomes whether the oral agreement was executed, i.e., fully performed. The court held that because Winkle had not been paid his salary and bonus, the contract was not executed. Accordingly the appellate court reversed the trial court’s holding that Winkle was entitled to his bonus. Winkel v. Family Health Care, P.C., 668 P.2d 208 (Mont. 1983).

10.7. Andrus wins and does not have to pay the premiums on the insurance policy. To constitute a contract there must be a meeting of the minds between the parties, an offer by one and an acceptance by the other. Generally, silence is not considered acceptance even if the offeror states that it is. The offeror cannot force the offeree to speak or to be found by his silence. The court found that the prior policy was a separate and independent agreement that came to an end by its own terms. It contained no automatic renewal clause and failed to the bind the parties in any way after the expiration of the original policy. None of the communications amounted to an acceptance.

In addition, the Court held that silence could be considered acceptance where the prior dealings