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Lawyers asleep at the wheel? The GM-Fisher Body contract.
- Source :
- Industrial & Corporate Change; Oct2008, Vol. 17 Issue 5, p1071-1084, 14p
- Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- In the analysis of vertical integration by contract versus ownership, one event has dominated the discussion--General Motors' (GM) merger with Fisher Body in 1926. The debates have all been premised on the assumption that the 10-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? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MERGERS & acquisitions
VERTICAL integration
CONTRACTS
COMMERCIAL law
ENFORCEMENT
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09606491
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Industrial & Corporate Change
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 35349930
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtn030