Book Opener

Winner Takes AllBecause she lives inDurham, NorthCarolina, ChristineJordan is a big fan ofcollege basketball. InMarch, she organized abasketball tournamentpool. She charged $5for each participantto play. Participantspredict the winner ofeach tournamentgame, and the personpredicting the mostwinners gets to keepall of the money. Wouldyou take part inChristine’s pool? Doyou think it is ethical?Why or why not?The main purpose of the agreement, to deliver goods, is legal andcan be separated from the illegal part. Consequently, that part of thecontract is valid, and Fraser must be paid for delivering the goods.Parties to a contract are said to be in pari delicto (in equal fault) ifthey both know that the agreement is illegal. In such cases, the courtwill aid neither party. On the other hand, if one of the parties is innocentor unaware of wrongdoing, then the parties are not in pari delicto.In that situation, the courts may grant relief to the innocent party. Thisprinciple may be applied when one party does not know that a law isbeing broken and has no intent to break the law.Example 2. Leonard Graham agreed to remodel a cottage ownedby Harriet Gavin so that it could be used as a bed and breakfast.Gavin paid Graham $18,000 in advance with a promise to paythe balance after the job was completed. Graham accepted themoney, even though he knew that zoning laws would prohibit theplacement of a bed and breakfast within the village limits. Gavinknew nothing about the zoning prohibition. The court would rulethat Gavin might recover her money because the parties were notin pari delicto.Agreements that Violate StatutesState legislatures pass laws declaring that certain types of agreementsare illegal and void. These agreements are illegal and void becausethey violate the state’s civil or criminal statutes, usury statutes, gamblingstatutes, licensing statutes, or Sunday statutes.188 Unit 2: Entering Into ContractsCivil and Criminal StatutesAgreements that require one party to commit a tort or a crime areillegal. Common torts are slander, libel, and fraud. Crimes include burglary,larceny, murder, and arson. An agreement is illegal if it is madeto interfere with or violate the rights of another person.Example 3. Sanger, a candidate for mayor, agreed to payMcLaughlin, a newspaper reporter, $1,000 to write an articlecontaining false statements that would damage the reputation ofBonney, Sanger’s opponent. Because this agreement requiredMcLaughlin to commit libel, it was illegal. A court would notenforce the agreement if Sanger refused to pay McLaughlin.Agreements to protect one party from the consequences of torts orcrimes committed are also illegal.Example 4. The mayor persuaded one of her campaign workersto break into the home of an opponent in the upcoming election.