What Makes An Agreement Illegal If Parties Involved Commit

What Makes An Agreement Illegalif The Parties Involved Commit T

What makes an agreement illegal? If the parties involved commit torts and crimes during the agreement and if a statutory law is broken. If the parties involved commit to a tort and crime the law will not uphold any contract and therefore it would be void. An example of committing a tort as mentioned in the book is, a network television reporter agrees to defame several politicians in return for a position as their opponent’s press secretary would find no remedy in the law should her benefactor fail to follow through after the libelous story was printed (Brown & Sukys, 2013).

As for a crime it can range from drugs, prostitution and hiring underage employees. It should be noted in an illegal contract/agreement neither party will be entitled to relief if the other party breaks the contract. Also agreements can be illegal under statutory law. Activities that could be illegal under statutory law are usurious agreements, wagering agreements, unlicensed agreements, unconscionable agreements and Sunday agreements. For further detail about these agreements, they can be found in the textbook on pages.

Are electronic signatures legal? Yes, electronic signatures also known as cyber signatures are legal. Cyber commerce legislation has taken off dramatically in the last decade as many people conduct all types of business over the internet that require a e-signature. The e-sign act is a federal act designed to deal with problems associated with cyber commerce.

The Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA) established a legal parity between electronic records and paper records which will make the signature valid just as they are on paper. The Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA) focuses on contracts that involve sale and leases for computer software, databases, and multimedia products. Again, when dealing with online transactions, electronic signatures are legal and can be used in court (Brown & Sukys, 2013).

What are consequences of illegal agreements? If a contract consists of a known criminal act along with promised consideration, then the parties of the contract could be prosecuted for conspiracy (Brown & Sukys, p. 223). Depending on what the crime was, it could carry jail or prison time. I work for the Leavenworth County Attorney’s office so I know that the statute for conspiracy is K.S.A. and it is always paired with another crime. For example, let’s use conspiracy to commit murder. A boyfriend agreed to kill his girlfriend’s husband for half of the life insurance that will be paid out in the event of the husband’s death. That contract is against the law that fact is known by both parties and had consideration.

They could be charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder which is listed as K.S.A., which is a severity level 2 person felony. It’s sometimes used for plea bargaining purposes because it’s a lesser charge of whatever crime was committed. Technically, the person who actually did the killing (the boyfriend) could get charged with (a)(2) which is capital murder. That statute says, “intentional and premeditated killing of any person pursuant to a contract or agreement to kill such person or being a party to the contract or agreement pursuant to which such person is killed” (KSLegislature.org, 2019). The conspiracy is already worked into the language of the statute therefore doesn’t need to be listed.

That person probably will get a very long prison sentence, or even the death penalty depending on criminal history, the severity of the crime, and other factors. Another consequence of illegal agreements is no judicial aid to either party should something not happen within the agreement but only if both parties know that it’s an illegal contract. A person could promise to give his drug dealer $100 when they get paid in two days if he could have his drugs right now. The courts aren’t going to help the drug dealer get his/her money back if the person never paid them. If there was only one party in the contract that knows that the contract is illegal but the other person didn’t know they were entering an illegal contract, then the courts could step in and give aid to the innocent person as the person had no intent to break the law.

For example, a person might purchase a bicycle from Craigslist.com. Buying with the intent on riding a bicycle isn’t against the law. However, if the bike was stolen then buying stolen goods is against the law but the person would have no way it was stolen when they purchased it because the other person misrepresented the bike as being their own property. There was no intent on breaking the law on the innocent party’s side. That person could legally sue the craigslist seller for his/her money back.

References

• Brown, G. W., & Sukys, P. (2013). Business Law: With UCC Applications (Thirteenth ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
• Kansas Legislature. (2019). Statutes on conspiracy and murder. KSLegislature.org. Retrieved from https://kslegislature.org