CIPS Level 4 Diploma in Procurement and Supply L4M3 Dumps PDF

A liquidated damages clause specifies a predetermined amount of money that must be paid as damages for failure to perform under a contract. The amount of the liquidated damages is supposed to be the parties’ best estimate at the time they sign the contract of the damages that would be caused by a breach. If a breach occurs and the liquidated damages clause is enforceable, the parties do not calculate the actual damages (i.e., how much money a party actually lost as a result of the breach). Instead, the breaching party pays the predetermined sum provided by the liquidated damages provision.

To be enforceable, a liquidated damages clause should meet the following criteria.

Damages are difficult to estimate. A court will be more likely to enforce a liquidated damages provision if the damages that will be incurred as a result of a breach of the contract are difficult to estimate when the contract is entered into. In certain situations, injuries are easy to prove. For example, if a breach will result in the loss of sales, it is easy to determine the actual damages by calculating lost profits. Others are more difficult, like the harm caused by breach of a confidentiality agreement or theft of trade secrets. To be enforceable, the damages should be either uncertain or difficult to quantify at the time the contract is entered into.

The amount is reasonable and not a penalty. If the amount of the liquidated damages is grossly disproportionate to the actual harm incurred, a court will likely find it is a penalty or punishment and will not enforce the provision. When making this analysis, courts usually consider what was reasonable at the time the contract was entered into as opposed to when the breach occurred. There have been cases, however, where courts will decide the reasonableness of the damage estimate based on the actual harm at the time of the breach.

The scenario is excerpted and edited based on a real world case law. In that case, the court held that GPP was entitled to liquidated damages under all four of the EPC contracts, ruling that the provisions did not amount to unenforceable penalties in each of the contracts.

Express terms are the terms of the agreement which are expressly agreed between the parties. Ideally, they will be written down in a contract between the parties but where the contract is agreed verbally, they will be the terms discussed and agreed between the parties.

Implied terms are terms implied into the contract by the courts. They are not expressly set out in the contract but are taken to be as effective as if they were and as if they had been included from dayone of the contract. The express terms and any implied terms together create the legally binding obligations on the parties.

Express terms are explicit and will normally override implied terms unless the implied term is created by statute and the law states that it cannot be overridden.

An invitation to treat is a legal concept that refers to an indication that a party is open to receiving offers, but it is not an offer in itself. Common examples include advertisements, display of goods in shops, or issuing a tender. It invites others to make offers, which may or may not be accepted.

When parties do not negotiate face-to-face, a key QUESTION NO: becomes when things like acceptances, rejections and revocations take effect. The general rule is that acceptances are effective on dispatch (when they are mailed). Everything else becomes effective when the offeror actually receives them. This idea is codified by the “mailbox rule” which states that acceptance is effective on dispatch, even before the offeror has received it. (The one minor exception to this rule involves option contracts for which acceptances are not effective until they are received by the offeror.)