Offer and acceptance

    Cards (10)

    • Offer
      An expression of willingness to enter a contract on certain terms. If accepted, an offer can become a contract.
    • Offer
      • Biggs v Boyd Gibbons: Property in exchange for £26,000
      • Carlill v Carbolic Smokeball Co: Poster advertising the Smokeball with terms and conditions and £500 deposit
    • Invitation to Treat (ITT)

      Indication of willingness to negotiate. It encourages others to make offers.
    • Invitation to Treat
      • Gibson v Manchester CC: "may be prepared to sell", lacked certainty
      • Pharmaceutical Society of GB v Boots (goods on a shelf)
      • Fisher v Bell (goods in a window display)
      • Partridge v Crittenden (advertisements)
    • Communicating offers
      • Offer must be clearly communicated AND the offeree must know the offer has been made.
    • Communicating offers
      • IRC v Fry: F sent Tax Office a cheque for £10,000 with note telling them to only cash it if they would accept it as full settlement for her debt of £100,000. Tax Office never read the note so offer not valid.
    • Ending offers
      • Counter Offer – By trying to alter the terms of the original offer it is ended.
      • Revocation / withdrawal – Provided the offer has not yet been accepted the offeror (person making the offer) can withdraw it.
      • Lapse of time – Offers can end of their own accord after a reasonable period of time.
      • Death of person making the offer – An offer cannot be accepted if the offeree knows that the offeror has died.
    • Ending offers
      • Hyde v Wrench: Offer to sell a farm at £1000 ended by attempt to buy at £900.
      • Routledge v Grant: Homeowner withdrew his offer to sell his house after 6 weeks without a reply.
      • Dickinson v Dodds: The test for revocation was whether a reasonable person would consider this information from the friend to be accurate.
      • Ramsgate Hotel Case: Hotel owners were not able to accept an offer to buy shares in their failing hotel 6 months after it had been made.
      • Bradbury v Morgan: A firm had a contract which renewed every month and continued to receive goods as part of this even though the owner had died.
    • Acceptance
      • Mirror image rule - Unconditional agreement to all the terms of the offer.
      • Acceptance by conduct can occur by performing the act requested by the offeror.
      • Acceptance by post is effective the moment an acceptance letter is posted.
      • Electronic acceptance is effective when it is received.
    • Acceptance
      • Felthouse v Bindley: Silence is not acceptance. To be valid, acceptance must be communicated.
      • Yates v Pulleyn: If an offer asks for acceptance in a particular way, it should be by that method or an equally effective one.
      • Northern Foods v Focal Foods: A first delivery of onions constituted acceptance of an offer so the price could not be negotiated thereafter.
      • Adams v Lindsell
      • Household Fire Insurance v Grant: Irrelevant whether offeror ever receives acceptance.
      • Entores
      • Thomas v BPE Solicitors: Email received at end of business hours at a solicitor's office. Expectation email would be read during reasonable office hours so acceptance took place when it arrived.
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