Explain the impacts of the decision in Williams v Roffey Bros & Essay

Explain the impacts of the decision in Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd. 1991 1 QB on the doctrine of consideration - Essay Example In order to critically asses the requirement of the proposition at hand, i.e. the impact of the case Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd. 1991 1 QB vs.Williams, we must first establish the premises of consideration under which this case fell, and then the outcome, and subsequently the impact of this case on the entire doctrine of consideration. The case was applied under the existing contractual duty that the promise owes to the promisor. In the latter case, half the crew of a ship had deserted it, and the other half had been promised extra money to carry on working till the ship reached its final destination, Bombay. Unlike the decision in Stilk v Myrick however, in this case the Court of Appeal had held that there was consideration in this case, mainly because the crew was so small that the remaining journey was more dangerous than when the contract had been formulated. The case of Williams v Roffey however, had an impact on consideration that was in some essence, groundbreaking. Before assessing this impact however, the facts of the case must be established and analyzed. Roffey was a building firm that had a contract to refurbish a block of flats, and had sub contracted the carpentry work to Williams, who had accepted the offer in return for  £20,000. Williams was however having financial problems and it became significantly obvious that he would not be able to finish the work on the due date. Roffey’s contract with the owners of the flat included a penalty clause in it, which effectively stated that if the work was not finished on the specified date then the contract would be terminated and Roffey would not be entitled to payment. In other words, it would lose out. Roffey thus approached Williams with an extra  £10,300 (and had already agreed that the original price had been far too low). It should be kept in mind, that this new agreem ent had also included new working agreements