cases

Question 1

Fisher v Bell

Answer 1

-offers
-invitation to treat
-d had flick knives on display in his shop window, statute made it an offence to offer these for sale
-it wasn’t an offer it was an invitation to treat

Question 2

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists Ltd

Answer 2

-offers
-invitation to treat
-courts asked to clarify if drugs displayed in a self-service pharmacy were offers or invitations to treat
-said they were invitations to treat, when you take them to the till you make an offer

Question 3

Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.

Answer 3

-offers
-advertised in the media
-c bought and used a medical product correctly, still caught the flu, sued for the £100 they promised in the advert if the product didn’t work
-advert wasn’t a true offer, it was a unilateral offer, payment was necessary

Question 4

Hyde v Wrench

Answer 4

-offers
-counter-offers
-w offered to sell his farm for £1000, rejected h’s offer of £950, w then refused h’s higher offer of £1000, sold to another party
-original offer of £1000 was rejected by the counter-offer of £950

Question 5

Taylor v Laird

Answer 5

-offers
-communication of offer
-t commanded l’s ship, but resigned command and worked as an ordinary crew member, upon return he tried to claim his wages, but was unable since he hadn’t communicated his offer

Question 6

Ramsgate Victoria Hotel v Montefiore

Answer 6

-offers
-lapse of time offers
-m offered to buy shares in a hotel, 6 months later the owner accepted the offer, by which time the share price had fallen
-offer hadn’t been withdrawn, but the lengh hof time between offer and acceptance was to great

Question 7

Dickinson v Dodds

Answer 7

-offers
-revocation of offer
-x offered to sell his house to y, promised to keep offer open until friday, sold it on thursday to z and told y, y pretended not to know and ‘agreed’ to buy the house friday morning
-offeror is free to withdraw an offer at any time before the acceptance, also no consideration to keep the offer open til friday

Question 8

Stevenson v McLean

Answer 8

-acceptance
-acceptance must be unconditional
-m offered to sell s some iron, s agreed the price and quantity, s asked for four months of credit instead of paying cash, didn’t hear anything back, s sent a letter of acceptance anyway
-enquiry for credit wasn’t a counter-offer, just an enquiry, offer could still be accepted

Question 9

Butler Machine Tool Co. Ltd v Ex-Cell-O Corp

Answer 9

-acceptance
-battle of the forms
-b’s standard form of contract contained a price variation clause, e accepted offer on their own standard form that had conflicting terms and no price variation clause
-imply reasonable terms

Question 10

Adams v Lindsell

Answer 10

-acceptance
-communication of acceptance, postal rule
-d wrote to c offering a quantity of wool and requiring an acceptance via post, d’s letter was incorrectly addressed, causing delay, c accepted offer and posted it the same day, but d already sold the wool
-court said contract began on the day the acceptance was posted

Question 11

Pretty Pictures v Quixote Films Ltd

Answer 11

-postal rule
-an exchange of emails doesn’t amount to a binding contract where the parties intended their agreement to be conducted by post

Question 12

cutter v Powell

Answer 12

-discharge by performance
-sailor died mid-voyage, wife tried to claim wages of his work prior to death, wasn’t allowed

Question 13

hoenig v isaacs

Answer 13

-substantial performance
-decorator owed £750 for service, customer wasn’t happy with it and there was £56 worth of furniture damage, only £56 deducted

Question 14

Bolton v mahadeva

Answer 14

-substantial performance
-installed central heating worth £560, defects of £174
-court said there was no substantive performance

Question 15

Ritchie v Atkinson

Answer 15

-severed contracts
-c only carried part of an agreed quantity, d said only part of the contract was performed
-where the contract is severable c is entitled to payment of the amount supplied