Balfour v Balfour [1919] 2 KB 571 is a leading English contract law case. It held that there is a rebuttable presumption against an intention to create a legally enforceable agreement when the agreement is domestic in nature.
Similarly one may ask, how do you create a legal relationship?
To make a contract enforceable, legal and binding, there must be an intention to create legal relations. In the absence of intention, the parties cannot sue each other. The contract may become a mere promise if the intention to create legal relations is absent.
An agreement made on the basis that the parties don’t intend to be legally bound until they enter into a more formal contract, is not itself usually legally binding but it can create a strong moral commitment which it might be difficult to later move away from.
Beside this, was there any contract among Mr Balfour and Mrs Balfour?
The court of Appeal had unanimously ruled that there was no such enforceable agreement between Mr. Balfour and Mrs. Balfour.
What are the two 2 types of intention to create legal relations?
Domestic and social agreements of intention to create legal relations can be broken down into three groups which are firstly commercial or business relations, secondly social friend’s relations and thirdly family or domestic relations.
What is the difference between the case of Balfour v Balfour and Merritt v Merritt?
Merritt talk about intention to create legal relations, in Merritt v. Merritt, it was held that the circumstances of the both the cases were different because in Balfour v. Balfour, the couple were married whereas in this case they were separated.
What is the significance of the decision in Merritt v Merritt in contract law?
Decision/Outcome
When parties are in the process of separating, or are separated, the presumption of there being no intention to create legal relations does not apply. The arrangement was sufficiently certain to be enforceable, and the paying of the mortgage was ample consideration for Mr Merritt’s promise.
What was the main reason that the court of Appeal in the case of Balfour v Balfour held that there was no contract?
However, these agreements are not contracts because the “parties did not intend that they should be attended by legal consequences.” One reason the court is hesitant to treat these agreements as contracts, is that there would not be enough courts to handle the volume of cases.
What’s intention to create legal relations?
What is ‘intention to create legal relations’? In its simplest form, intention to create legal relations means that the parties must intend to enter into a legally binding arrangement in which the rights and obligations of the agreement are enforceable.
Why is intention to create legal relations so important in the creation of a contract?
An intention to create legal relations is essential in the formation of a contract. Alongside an agreement (offer, acceptance and consideration) it provides evidence of the existence of a valid contract. As part of life, we regularly enter into agreements in the ordinary course of each day.