A description of a contract that will not be performed by a court even if it is valid. A legally binding enforceable contract requires an offer to enter into an agreement, acceptance of that offer, consideration and absence of defenses for failure to enforce the agreement. For example, Company A falsely tells a supplier that it will not hire a competing company if it signs the contract. Contracts can be declared unenforceable for public policy reasons, not only to protect one of the parties involved, but also because what the contract represents could harm society as a whole.
If it appears that one of the parties did not have this capacity for reasoning, the contract can be declared unenforceable against that person. It does not mean that they cannot have legal agreements, but rather that special attention should be paid to the circumstances of the contract. Sometimes, a contract cannot be enforced not out of intentional bad faith on the part of one of the parties, but because of an error on the part of one of the parties (called a unilateral error) or on both sides (called mutual error). There are several important factors that must be considered before, during and after the signing of a contract to ensure its applicability.
The unenforceable contract has some legal consequences that may not apply in an action for damages or specific performance against certain defenses, including fraud statute. Just because a contract is signed does not mean that both parties are bound by the terms in all circumstances. An unenforceable contract is a valid contract that cannot be fully enforced due to a technical defect. Some common defenses for enforcing a contract are lack of capacity, coercion, undue influence, misrepresentation, non-disclosure, immeasurability, public policies, error and impossibility.
For example, contracts between the employer and the employee, or the caregiver and the patient, could be more susceptible to undue influence. If a court finds a contract to be excessive, it has other options besides annulling the agreement altogether. Read on to learn what makes a contract enforceable and the factors that can make it unenforceable before, during, or after you sign it. Contracts may not be enforceable because of their object, because one party to the agreement unfairly exploited the other party, or because there is insufficient evidence of the agreement.
If person B forced person A to enter into an agreement taking advantage of a special or particularly persuasive relationship that person B had with person A, the resulting contract could be declared unenforceable on grounds of undue influence.
