The third element of a contract is Contractual capacity. Those entering contracts must be legally competent and have the legal capacity to enter a contract. The fourth element of a contract is legality. The contract has to be legal and not against public policy (211).
Thank you for contacting me regarding the unsolicited order and invoice that you received from Hot Air, Inc. I have reviewed the information you presented and can provide you assurance, based on the information given, that you are under no obligation to Hot Air, Inc. for the receipt of the mentioned merchandise.
One of the four elements of a valid contract would be ‘agreement’, which would consist of an offer, and an acceptance of that offer. (Clarkson et al. 225) No authorized representative of your company accepted this unsolicited offer, which provides a solid defense. This would fall under the category of an implied-in-fact contract, if you had not returned the merchandise. With an implied-in-fact contract, the conduct of each party, rather than words, would define the terms of the agreement. (215). No words were used, so the remaining question would be is if your actions after receiving the unsolicited goods could constitute a binding contract. (215). This appears not to be the case.
In contract law, an offer is “a promise to or commitment to do or refrain from doing some specified thing in the future.” (Clarkson et al. 225) One of the terms of an offer is “it must be communicated by the offeror to the offeree, resulting the the offeree’s knowledge of the offer” (225). The ‘reasonable person’ standard is important. Under the reasonable person standard, someone’s words or conduct are taken to mean what a reasonable person in the offeree’s position would think or do. (228).