Lawyers Asleep at the Wheel? The GM-Fisher Body Contract
13 Pages Posted: 31 Aug 2007
Date Written: August 2007
Abstract
In the analysis of vertical integration by contract versus ownership one event has dominated the discussion - General Motors' merger with Fisher Body in 1926. The debates have all been premised on the assumption that the ten-year contract between the parties signed in 1919 was a legally enforceable agreement. However, it was not. Because Fisher's promise was illusory the contract lacked consideration. This note suggests that GM's counsel must have known this. It raises a significant question in transactional engineering: what is the function of an agreement that is not legally enforceable.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Contracts as Reference Points - Experimental Evidence
By Ernst Fehr, Oliver Hart, ...
-
Contracts as Reference Points: Experimental Evidence
By Ernst Fehr, Oliver Hart, ...
-
Contracts as Reference Points - Experimental Evidence
By Ernst Fehr, Oliver Hart, ...
-
By Oliver Hart and John Moore
-
By Oliver Hart and John Moore
-
By Oliver Hart and John Moore
-
Shifting the Blame: On Delegation and Responsibility
By Björn Bartling and Urs Fischbacher
-
Agreeing Now to Agree Later: Contracts that Rule Out But Do Not Rule in
By Oliver Hart and John Moore
-
Agreeing Now to Agree Later: Contracts that Rule Out But Do Not Rule in
By Oliver Hart and John Moore