key to the study guide - Name

ACTIVITY
This activity tests your understanding of the prescribed case Schnaar v
Jansen. Study the sections on pages 8±9 of your prescribed textbook, as
well as pages 7±9 of your prescribed casebook where this case is discussed
and then answer the following questions:
(1) Which of the legal requirements for an engagement formed the basis
of the problem in this case?
(2) What are the facts of this case?
(3) Which problem did the court have to attend to, in other words what
was the legal question in this case?
(4) When should this case not be followed as authority?
(5) Why, according to Van den Heever, is this decision wrong?
FEEDBACK
(1) Consensus.
(2) The plaintiff was engaged to the defendant. The defendant repudiated
the engagement after finding out that one of the plaintiff's uncles had
murdered his wife, that another uncle had entered into a mixed
marriage and that her brother had served a prison sentence for theft.
The plaintiff then sued the defendant for breach of promise.
(3) The court had to decide whether these circumstances (the nondisclosure
of certain facts) justified the unilateral repudiation of the
engagement.
(4) If the premise is accepted that any ground which in the light of human
experience would make the prospective marriage unhappy, constitutes
a good cause for the unilateral repudiation of the engagement, Schnaar
v Jansen should not be followed.
(5) According to Van den Heever the decision in Schnaar v Jansen is
incorrect, as: ``An engagement to marry is a contract of uberrimae fidei
[that is, of the utmost good faith] and a party with a skeleton in his
cupboard is obliged to disclose it.''
Capacitytoact The discussion of capacity to act on pages 9±10 of the textbook deals
mainly with the permission a minor has to obtain from his or her parents
in order to become engaged. Lastly, your textbook indicates that persons
who do not have the capacity to act due to mental illness cannot become
engaged while incapable of acting.
30
ACTIVITY
Summarise the rules concerning the consent that is needed when a minor
wants to conclude a contract of engagement in the following instances:
(1) where both parents of the minor are alive