Offer Flashcards
What is an offer?
A proposal (or promise) showing a willingness to contract on firm and definite terms.
Who is the offeror?
A person who makes the offer
Who is the offeree?
A person to whom an offer is made
What is a bilateral offer?
It requires both offeror and offeree to do something, both parties have obligations to complete
What is meant by the battle of the forms?
Is where parties act like their set of T&Cs is the one that governs the contract (TRW v Panasonic)
What is a unilateral offer?
An agreement to pay in exchange for performance if the potential performer chooses to act, there is no obligation to perform the act (Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball)
What is an invitation to treat?
An indication that one person is willing to negotiate a contract with another, but that they are not yet willing to make a legal offer (Gibson v Manchester City Council)
Advertisement?
An advert will usually be an ITT rather than an offer (Partridge v Crittenden)
What is the exception for adverts for ITT?
When there is a promise to give a reward for an act, the offeror must pay the award (Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball)
Goods in a shop window/on a shelf/on display?
All goods on display are ITT’s as the seller is not obliged to sell.
The customer makes the offer to the shop keeper, which they can choose to accept
(Fisher v Bell)
Auction bids?
At an auction, the bidder makes the offer. The auctioneer then accepts the final offer by banging their hammer, this means that lots at an auction are just ITT’s (British Car Auctions v Wright)
Information requests?
A request for information and a reply to such request is not an offer, this includes general enquiries (Harvey v Facey)
Who can make an offer?
Any person, business or machine (Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking)
Communicating the offer?
The offer must be communicated as silence cannot constitute to an offer. Communication can be verbal, written, emailed or by letter (Taylor v Laird)
Exact timing?
Where the offer is open until a specific time, unless that offer is revoked, the offeree has until the closure of that time to accept the offer (Stevenson v McLean)
How can an offer end?
Revocation
Rejection
Ran out of time
Death
Revocation?
To revoke means to withdraw the offer, this can be done at any point before acceptance and it must be communicated (Routledge v Grant)
Third party revocation?
The offer can be revoked through a reliable third party which is known to both parties (Dickinson v Dodds)
Rejection?
Once an offer has been rejected it is destroyed and cannot later be accepted
Counter offer?
Where the offeree makes a counter offer, this also destroys the original offer and a new offer is created (Hyde v Wrench)
Ran out of time?
If there is a deadline for an offer to last, then as soon as it expires, the offer ends.
If there is no set time, the offer will be open for a reasonable amount of time which depends on the nature of the offer (Ramsgate Victoria Hotel v Montefiore)
Death?
If the offeree dies, the offer will end. Only the person who was receiving the offer could have accepted.
If the offeror dies, acceptance can still take place until they learn of the death (Bradbury v Morgan)
