Returning Subscriber?
Not a Subscriber to Litigation Pathfinder?
Get the full text of this legal issue, including links to cited primary law, along with unlimited access 1,000’s of other legal issues…and more!
Issue: What contractual terms must be subject to mutual assent in Alabama?
| Area of Law: | Business Organizations & Contracts |
| Keywords: | Mutual assent; Formation of a valid contract |
| Jurisdiction: | Alabama |
| Cited Cases: | 622 So. 2d 1283; 644 So. 2d 919; 699 So. 2d 1242 |
| Cited Statutes: | Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 33 cmt. a (1979) |
| Date: | 08/01/2000 |
An element necessary to prove the formation of a valid contract is mutual assent. However, in Alabama, as in most jurisdictions, the law if definite that mutual assent is not required with respect to each and every contract term; rather, mutual assent is required only with respect to “essential terms.” See Hargrove v. Tree of Life Christian Day Care Ctr., 699 So. 2d 1242, 1247 (Ala. 1997); Pinyan v. Community Bank, 644 So. 2d 919, 922 (Ala. 1994); Strength v. Alabama Dep’t of Fin., 622 So. 2d 1283, 1289 (Ala. 1993). This is also the view of the Restatement of Contracts. “Where the parties have intended to conclude a bargain, uncertainty as to incidental or collateral matters is seldom fatal to the existence of a contract.” Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 33 cmt. a (1979).
[…]