Before  a  contract  will  be  specifically  executed,  it  is  as  a  General  requuites
very  general  rule  necessary  that  it  should  be  presented  to  the  "'■
court  in  a  complete  form,  certain,  free  from  illegality  and
fraud,  and  the  conduct  of  the  party  seeking  to  enforce  it  must
not  be  such  as  to  preclude  the  court  from  aiding  him ;  for


though  further
contract  intended.
86  Contract  must  be  complete —  Certainty.
contracts  must  be  certain,  fair  and  proved  as  by  law  required.
See  Ld.  Walpole  v.  Ld.  Oxford,  3  Ves.  420.  Therefore,
where  a  contract  is  required  to  be  in  writing,  as  in  some
cases  it  is,  by  the  Statute  of  Frauds  {ante,  p.  72)  and  some
other  statutes,  a  verbal  agreement  is  insufficient,  unless  in
some  exceptional   cases.      See   tit.   "  Vendor  and  Pue-

CHASBE."

Contract  must  be  complete.}  The  contract  between  the
parties  must  be  complete ;  the  cases  on  this  head  will  be
found  collected  under  "  Vendoe  and  Puechasek,"  as  nearly
all  have  arisen  upon  questions  properly  belonging  to  that
title,  and  on  the  point  whether  letters  or  other  documents
taken  together  form  a  complete  agreement  or  not  within  the
May  be  complete  statute.  It  Only  remains  to  observe,  that  if  there  be  a  com-
plete contract,  its  validity  and  efficacy  as  such  will  be  in  no
way  affected  merely  by  reason  of  a  further  and  more  formal
contract  being  contemplated  by  the  parties.  Thomas  v.
Bering,  1  Ke.  729—741  ;  Hey  worth  v.  Knight,  17  C.  B.,
N.  S.  298  ;  Chinnock  v.  Marq.  Ely,  11  Jur.,  N.  S,  329 ;  see
Lindsey  v.  Lynch,  2  Sch.  &  L.  1  ;  Ridgway  v.  Wharton,
6  H.  L.  C.  238.
