Offer, Acceptance, Certainty & Intention Flashcards
What is an offer vs an invitation to treat?
Offer: Expression of willingness to contract on specific terms and to be bound by it
Invitation to treat: Expression of willingness to negotiate, not intended to be bound by it
What is acceptance?
The final expression of assent to the exact terms of an offer, acceptance & offer must coincide (meeting of the minds)
What is the mirror image rule?
Original offer must not be changed or met with a counter offer, must be a meeting of minds
What is a bilateral contract vs a unilateral contract?
Unilateral contracts have a promise in exchange for the performance of an action. In contrast, bilateral contracts are reciprocal as both parties have to perform their parts of the action
Using cases, give examples of invitations to treat
-Goods on display (PSGB v Boots)
-Advertisements (Partridge v Crittenden) UNLESS they make a promise forming a unilateral contract (Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball)
-Merely stating a price (Gibson v MCC)
What two things must acceptance be?
-Unconditional, there must be no attempt to change the offer
-Communicated, silence is not enough (Felthouse v Bindley)
What is the postal rule?
If acceptance is made by post, acceptance is effective once the letter is sent, NOT when it is received (Household Fire Insurance v Grant)
When will the postal rule not apply?
-Revocation of an offer (Byrne v Van Tienhoven)
-Instanenous methods of communication such as telex or email (Entores v Miles Far East Corp)
-Where the contract expressly excludes use of the postal rule (Holwell Securities v Hughes)
In what other ways can acceptance be done?
-By conduct (Brogden v Metropolitan Railway)
-Acceptance can occur without knowledge of the offer (Gibbons v Proctor)
What is meant by ‘Battle of the Forms’?
Butler Machines v Ex-Cello Corp, the last terms that are agreed upon without objection will form the contract, it does not matter who made the original offer, follows the mirror principle
What case shows proper termination of an offer?
Dickinson v Dodds, it did not matter that termination was communicated by a third party
What did Lord Denning say in Butler Machines v Ex-Cello Corp?
Lord Denning argued that the mirror approach was out of date and proposed looking at the correspondence of parties to determine whether an agreement was made
What is the assumption in cases with an intention to create legal relations?
-Social & family agreements are often assumed to not have an intention to create legal relations (Balfour v Balfour)
-The opposite is presumed in a business setting (Esso Petroleum v Customs & Excise)
What does the case of Blue v Ashley show?
Language of an offer can be used without expressing a genuine willingness to be bound, assumed parties did not intend to be legally bound when made in social settings
