View source for Simple contract

{{short description|Contract not made under seal}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

In [[contract law]],<ref>Jack Beatson, {{smallcaps|Anson’s Law of Contract}} 73 (2002) ("English law does not regard a bare promise or agreement as legally enforceable but recognises only two kinds of contract, the contract made by deed, and the simple contract.").</ref> a '''simple contract''' is a contract made [[Oral contract|orally]], in writing, or both, rather than a contract made under [[Seal (contract law)|seal]].<ref>David M. Walker, {{smallcaps|The Oxford Companion to Law}} 1144 (1980) (describing a "simple contract" as a "contract made not under seal, but orally or in writing").</ref> Simple contracts require [[consideration]] to be valid,<ref>Jack Beatson, {{smallcaps|Anson’s Law of Contract}} 73 (2002).</ref> but simple contracts may be implied from the conduct of [[Party (law)|parties]] bound by the contract.<ref>[http://thelawdictionary.org/simple-contract/ {{small caps|Black's Law Dictionary}}], ''Simple Contract'' (Accessed July 24, 2015).</ref> [[William Blackstone]] observed in his ''[[Commentaries on the Laws of England]]'' that in the seventeenth century, [[debtor]]s used simple contracts as one of three accepted forms of unsecured [[debt]] instruments.<ref>George Lee Flint, Jr.& Marie Juliet Alfaro, ''Secured Transactions History: The Impact of Southern Staple Agriculture on The First Chattel Mortgage Acts in The Anglo-American World'', 30 {{smallcaps|Ohio N.U.L. Rev.}} 537, 545 (2004) (citing 2 William Blackstone, {{smallcaps|Commentaries on the Laws of England}} 465 (Chicago, Callaghan & Co. 1879)).</ref> In 1828, the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] [[Statute of Frauds Amendment Act 1828|amended the statute of frauds]] so that oral acknowledgments or promises could not be used as evidence to prove the existence of a simple contract.<ref>Statute of Frauds Amendment Act 1828, 9 Geo 4 c 14 (1828).</ref> Today, some American jurisdictions have established that a security interest is perfected "when a creditor on a simple contract cannot acquire a judicial [[lien]] that is superior to the interest" of the secured party.<ref>Timothy R. Zinnecker, [http://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3313&context=mlr ''Purchase Money Security Interests in the Preference Zone: Questions Answered and Questions Raised by the 1994 Amendments to Bankruptcy Code § 547''], 62 {{smallcaps|Mo. L. Rev.}} 47, 84 (1997) (internal quotations omitted).</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodworth]]''
* [[Company seal]]

== References ==
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[[Category:Common law]]
[[Category:Contract law]]


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