Offer Flashcards
The Main Questions / Issues
- Is there a contract ?
- What are the terms / What is the content ?
Four Main Elements to a Binding Agreement ?
- Offer
- Acceptance
- Consideration
- Intention
Objective Test applied
(Give a case Authority)
- Have the parties minds met (ad idem) ?
- Kennedy v Lee (1817)
- Mail correspondence bore out agreement, even if one party did not mean to agree
Offer Definition and what does it need to fulfill ?
Definite promise by the offeror to the offeree (“definite offer”)
If accepted then the offerer is bound
- Is an application form sent to buy a flat an acceptance ?
- Which case authority can you give ?
- Application form to buy a flat is not acceptance
- Case authority Gibson v Manchester City Council (1979)
Can a supply of information amount to an offer ?
Give a case authority
A mere supply of information about a product is not an offer but rather an invitation to treat.
Harvey v Facey (1893)
Property in Jamaica, exchange of correspondence:
Harvey, who wanted the property to be sold to him rather than to the City, sent Facey a telegram. It said, “Will you sell us Bumper Hall Pen? Telegraph lowest cash price-answer paid”. Facey replied on the same day: “Lowest price for Bumper Hall Pen £900.” Harvey then replied in the following words. “We agree to buy Bumper Hall Pen for the sum of nine hundred pounds asked by you. Please send us your title deed in order that we may get early possession.”
Four elements that have to be present in a definite offer?
- Who are the parties ?
- What is the subject matter ?
- What is the other party providing in return ?
- What is the timeframe ?
- Unilateral contract definition
- Case Authority
Offer to the public at large
Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company
-> Offer of a unilateral contract results in a bilateral contract
What is an invitation to treat ?
- Inviting offer
- invitation to a bargain / negotiate
- Not capable of being accepted in identical terms (e.g. you cant answer an invitation to treat with the words “I agree”)
Examples for invitations to treat
- Advertisements
- Shop Displays
- Auctions
- Tenders
-Advertisement of goods- Case authority
Partridge v Crittenden (1968)
- Wild birds at sale that were protected under an act
Price list of goods (invitation to treat) case authority
Grainger & Son v Gough
-> Price list for wine is invitation to treat
Shop or Shop Display - Invitation to treat - Case Authorities
- Fisher v Bell
- > Flick knife displayed for sale with price tage
- Pharmaceutical Society v Boots Cash Chemists (1953)
->Same principle applies to self-service shops
((-> Obiter dicta relating to books - may expand to ratio))
Timothy v Simpson (1834)
-> there is a dress in a shop window, but there is amistake on its price. The judge agreed with the shop saying that whatever the mistake was, the shop window is “an invitation to treat”, and not an offer.
Auctions (Invitations to treat) Case Authorities and Mechanism
- “With reserve” means there is no offer
- “Without reserve” results in collateral contract with highest bidder
- > Warlow v Harrison (1859)
- > Barry v Heathcote Ball (Commercial Auctions) Ltd (2001)
Tenders (Invitation to treat)
Harvela Investments v Royal Trust of Canada (1986)
-> Sealed competitive tener - 2 contract approach
