LESSON 6
Contract—always involves two people,
sometimes more, when these two people form a
contract what they do is they give their consent,
consent means: I agree; most important form of
giving consent is to affix your signature to a
written contract; you sign a written document in
which the parties express their consent
so you want to rent a small space in a shopping
centre, you negotiate with the landlord, in the
lease there are several points crucial: 1) what am
I renting? small space on the ground floor or
second floor? 2) there has to be agreement
just because the consent is giving verbally, just
because there’s no signature, doesn’t meant
there’s no contract; you got a contract that is
very difficult to prove; if there are witnesses,
then the contract will be enforceable; consent
must be written and signed; man agrees to rent
out a space in a shopping centre and the tenant
says yes, and if they agree that the lease will last
for 36 months, then they agree on the term of the
lease; another crucial thing to agree on: the rent
price; and then the terms: will the rent be paid in
full or gradually?
contracts is a crucial part of Civil Law because it
creates obligations; obligation is something
which you have to do; the reason why you have
to do it in the contractual matters is because you
have given your consent, you have promised,
signed a written document…
in any contract of lease there are two
fundamental obligations, and the obligations are
reciprocal; each party has something that he
must do; obligation of the landlord is to deliver
the space; when Civil Code talks about delivery,
Civil Code means making the thing available for
the other party; Code says when the landlord is
renting out to you, he is obliged to deliver the
space; if the space is in a mess, then tenant says
to landlord that you are delivering me a space in
such a mess; landlord has failed to make
delivery; or the guy who used to occupy the
space before is still there—that is not making the
delivery; delivery means: hello sir, madame,
welcome, here’s the key, open the door and move
in.
fundamental obligation of the tenant: to pay the
rent in a timely manner; other obligations too: if
someone hands you a written document and
says, here’s the contract, there will be no changes
allowed…you take the contract, and say, thank
you very much, but I am not signing, because I
require certain provisions, I gotta have at least
10 parking spaces reserved for my clients…
merchants are going out of business because of
the constructions…so you say to the landlord:
don’t tell me this contract is written in stone…so
you write on the contract that changes can be
made…and that the landlord will guarantee at
least 10 spaces for my clients; if he refuses, then
walk away
sometimes the landlord wants the tenant to
clean the snow outside…for the rent I pay, I’m
busy, the tenant says; he writes in the contract:
the landlord is responsible for cleaning the snow.
commercial landlords and their tenants: many
infamous fights
obligations come from contracts; and these
obligations are legal obligations; which means
that if you don’t respect your obligation then you
can get sued; the other party can take you into
court to have the lease cancelled, to force you to
pay the rent or damages because you have not
respected your legal obligations
another distinction: legal vs moral obligations;
sometimes they overlap; everybody has a moral
obligation to care for a sick parent who is in need
of financial assistance; Civil Code of Quebec says
it isn’t just moral, but legal as well, and you don’t
need to sign a contract; a contract between a
mother and daughter; Civil Code says, parents
are responsible to assist their children in need,
doesn’t matter if they’re minor or major
example: boy is 19 years, can’t afford to buy
textbook, but father is rich, believes kid must live
the tough life, work, earn, do what you have to
do, and the boy says, have you seen the syllabus
in this course? how am I gonna go out and shuffle
snow when I have such course workload, and
father says, sorry, if I did this, you can do this,
and the lawyer can say to the kid that he can sue
his father.
if a kid has reasonable material needs which he difference between 150$ promised and 400$
cannot fulfill, the parent is obliged to kick in and that you had to pay in front of the stadium
help him to the best of his ability; word
reasonable is key; if kid says his father is greedy in moral obligations—judge will say, that’s too
he won’t help me financially; sad point: the old bad, I can’t help. legal obligation—sit down, tell
father/mother have no money, their son is me what he did to you
driving a maserati and has a chalet in South of
France, he doesn’t want to pay and the parents read in ch4, from 96-107
have to resort to eating cat food, the lawyer goes case of Mr.Malick on 116
in to rage and says, We will sue him, but the
mother/father will say, I cannot take my own
child to court, and similarly the kid he cannot sue
his father, and will say, I know what you’re
saying is true but I cannot sue my own father—
classic example of an overlap of a moral
obligation and a legal obligation.

after 18, if the child is in need, parents must

assist;

some obligations are strictly moral: nobody can

sue you if you can’t respect a moral obligation;
legal obligation is enforceable because if one
doesn’t fulfill his legal obligation he will be sued;
many moral obligations which are not legal
obligations at the same time cannot be enforced;

example: have a couple of hockey tickets, and

you call your friend Marty and tell him, you
wanna go to a hockey game? and Marty gladly
agree, the whole week he is looking forward to
the game, then you’re at work, day before the
game, and somebody says to you, Your
supervisor Rocco is a very big hockey fan, he
loves the Rangers, why don’t you take him to the
game, he’ll be under your debt, so you go ahead
and call Marty, Sorry man, can’t do it, something
came up, maybe next time…person who offered
tickets to Marty has a moral obligation to do the
right thing, to keep the promise, to do what he
said, but he turns out to be a fair weather
friend…is there anything that Marty can do apart
from cursing him? something of a legal nature?—
>No, he can’t do anything; not the same thing as
saying, Marty for you only 150$ ticket for the
game, are you on? Marty says sure, when can I
pay this…in two days…this isn’t a moral
obligation anymore, it’s legal because it involves
an offer to sell a specific thing; Marty can sue his
buddy for breach of contract; sue him for the