Contract Law: Offer and Acceptance Evaluation

Question 1

Offer v ITT: goods display

Answer 1

• An ITT
• justification based on freedom of contract
• Can be unfair and confusing to the public
  (Fisher v Bell)

Question 2

Offer v ITT: Self-serve shop

Answer 2

• People believe goods can be bought straight away
• Unfair and confusing

Question 3

Offer v ITT: Advertisements

Answer 3

• Unilateral contracts can be offers, causing complications
  Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co

Question 4

Offer v ITT: Reform proposals

Answer 4

• Law commission suggested all ITT’s should be offers
• Would cause problems with age restricted goods

Question 5

Rules for revocation

Answer 5

• Counter offer
• Length of time
• Reasonable time
• Revocation before acceptance
• Reform proposals
• Revocation by third party

Question 6

Counter offer

Answer 6

• Ends the original offer
• Fair rule, rarely refused
• Not always clear (Stevenson v McLean (1880)

Question 7

Length of time

Answer 7

• The length of time can be changed, as long as the offer hasn’t ended/acceptance has taken place.
• Offeree might’ve relied on fix period
  (Routledge v Grant).

Question 8

Reasonable time

Answer 8

• If not stated, a reasonable time will be offered
• Fair as the offeror can sell to another buyer.

Question 9

Revocation before acceptance

Answer 9

( Must happen before acceptance is communicated (Byrne v Van Tienhoven).
* Must be certain to both parties
* Might be hard to implement due to unclearness.

Question 10

Reform Proposals

Answer 10

• Removal of postal rules
• Stating out of hours time

Question 11

Revocation by third party

Answer 11

• Might be carried out by reliable third party (Dickinson v Dodds).
• Allows for justice and prevents fraudulent acceptance
• Uncertainty about reliability.

Question 12

Specified method of acceptance

Answer 12

• Should be allowed due to the offeror having control
• Offeror might specify unreasonable forms.
• Is still accepted as long as it doesn’t disadvantage the offeror
• Can be problematic giving discretion to the judge.

Question 13

Silence

Answer 13

Silence cannot amount to an acceptance as seen in Felthouse.
Hence why its so important to communicate an acceptance

Question 14

Acceptance and unilateral contracts

Answer 14

Acceptance takes place once performance o specified conduct commences.
(Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co)

Question 15

Acceptance must be conditional

Answer 15

• Counter offers do not count as immediate acceptance.
  (Hyde v Wrench)
• Distinguishing between making a counter-offer and asking for more information.

Question 16

Postal rules

Answer 16

• Allows businesses efficiency
• Rules are not clear cut
  (Adams v Linsell)

Question 17

Postal rules: reform

Answer 17

• Extremely outdated
• Reformed to be up to date with modern communication.

Question 18

Modern methods: Communication (incl reform)

Answer 18

• Open hours can create problems (Brinkibon v Stahag Stahl)
• State out of hours time to the offeree, so communication does not happen).

Question 19

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