Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Felthouse v Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35; 142 ER 1037. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
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Chapter
Felthouse v Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35; 142 ER 1037
Chapter
Felthouse v Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35; 142 ER 1037
Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Felthouse v Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35; 142 ER 1037. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
2. Contract I: essential features of a contract
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the essential features of a contract. Offer and acceptance are the first stages in establishing an agreement that may form a legally binding contract. An offer may be accepted at any point until it is terminated. Acceptance can only be made by the offeree or their agent. Consideration is the bargain element of a contract and may be referred to as the ‘price of a promise’. The parties must intend for an agreement to establish legal relations to create an enforceable contract. Presumptions exist in relation to social/domestic agreements and business/commercial agreements.
Chapter
Adams v Lindsell [1818] EWHC KB J59; (1818) 1 B & Ald 681; (1818) 106 ER 250
Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Adams v Lindsell (1818) 106 ER 250. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
Adams v Lindsell [1818] EWHC KB J59; (1818) 1 B & Ald 681; (1818) 106 ER 250
Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Adams v Lindsell (1818) 106 ER 250. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
2. Agreement Part I: Offer
This chapter discusses the principles relating to offers. For an offer to be made there must be an apparent intention to make one. Ordinary displays of priced goods are regarded as invitations to treat, which customers make an offer to buy. Ordinary adverts are regarded as invitations to treat, but one can be an offer if there is an apparent intention to make one. Meanwhile, an auction ‘without reserve’ will ordinarily amount to an offer for a unilateral contract to sell to the highest bidder. Ordinarily, an invitation for tenders is an invitation to treat and each tender is an offer. When an invitation for tenders says that the most competitive tender will result in a contract, it will be treated as an offer for a unilateral contract under which the best tender will be accepted. Offers can be ended by lapse, revocation, rejection, and (possibly) death.
Chapter
3. Agreement Part II: Acceptance
This chapter examines the key cases and principles relating to acceptance. Where an offer has an essential requirement relating to acceptance (like the method of acceptance) then it must be followed. However, equivalent alternatives might be permitted if the offeror has not done enough to make the requirement essential. Acceptance must be in response to an offer, but the motive for accepting is not relevant. The general rule is that acceptance is effective once it has been communicated (received). Automated ticket and vending machines present an offer so that acceptance takes place when the customer is committed—as when payment is made. Meanwhile, emailed acceptance and the use of websites to communicate acceptance are likely to operate on the basis of the general rule. The traditional analysis based on offer and acceptance will be applied to ‘battle of forms’ cases. In exceptional cases, courts may look to the wider context in such cases to identify the terms of an agreement.
Chapter
2. The Agreement
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
A contract consists of an actionable promise or promises. Every such promise involves at least two parties, a promisor and a promisee, and an outward expression of common intention and of expectation as to the declaration or assurance contained in the promise. This outward expression of a common intention and of expectation normally takes the form of an agreement. This chapter discusses the establishment of an agreement by offer and acceptance; uncertain and incomplete agreements; and the intention to create legal relations.
Chapter
6. The formation of the contract
This chapter examines the legal requirements relating to the formation of a contract. It discusses the five essential elements of a contract, namely offer, acceptance (offer and acceptance are collectively referred to as ‘agreement’), certainty, consideration, and the intention to create legal relations. It analyses these individual requirements in detail and considers the courts’ approach in determining whether an enforceable contract is present or not. This chapter also explains the principles of different types of contracts, namely the distinction between bilateral and unilateral contracts, and how the normal rules of contractual formation are modified in the cases involving unilateral contracts.
Chapter
3. The Phenomena of Agreement
M P Furmston
This chapter and the next two chapters set out the way in which a legally binding contract is made. This chapter explains the formation of the contract and sets out the rules that determine whether what has happened should legally be regarded as an agreement. The discussions cover offer and acceptance; termination of offer; constructing a contract; inchoate contracts; and long-term relationships.
Chapter
3. Offer and Acceptance
This chapter discusses the rules of offer and acceptance that have been laid down by the courts over the years. It states that the rules claim to be of general application and that they purport to give effect to the intention of the parties, albeit their intention objectively ascertained. The chapter also establishes that the rules in practice are often inter-linked. For example, the question whether or not an offer has been accepted may depend in a particular case on whether or not the offer was revoked before it was accepted; a court deciding such a case must decide when both the acceptance and the revocation took effect. The chapter examines the difference between an offer and an invitation to negotiate (or an invitation to treat), particularly in its application to contracts concluded in shops, tenders and contracts concluded at an auction, the battle of the forms, the time at which acceptance takes place when a contract is concluded by post, and acceptance in the case of unilateral contracts.
Chapter
3. Offer and Acceptance
This chapter discusses the rules of offer and acceptance that have been laid down by the courts over the years. It states that the rules claim to be of general application and that they purport to give effect to the intention of the parties, albeit their intention objectively ascertained. The chapter also establishes that the rules in practice are often inter-linked. For example, the question whether or not an offer has been accepted may depend in a particular case on whether or not the offer was revoked before it was accepted; a court deciding such a case must decide when both the acceptance and the revocation took effect. The chapter examines the difference between an offer and an invitation to negotiate (or an invitation to treat), particularly in its application to contracts concluded in shops, tenders and contracts concluded at an auction, the battle of the forms, the time at which acceptance takes place when a contract is concluded by post, and acceptance in the case of unilateral contracts.
Chapter
2. Agreement
How does contract law determine whether the parties have committed to the contract and what each has committed to? This chapter discusses: the primacy of the objective test of intentions; the offer and acceptance test of agreement and what happens when one party appears to be mistaken about what is in the contract; when an offer is terminated so that any purported acceptance is ineffectual; assessment of the mirror image approach; the requirement of certainty; the nature of the requirement of intention to create legal relations; and the law’s approach to the benefits conferred in anticipation of contracts that do not materialise.
Chapter
2. Offer and Acceptance
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and other features. This chapter outlines a number of questions that need to be posed in answering exam questions about the rules of offer and acceptance and certainty of terms. First, has an offer been made? Secondly, if an offer has been made, has the offeree unequivocally accepted this offer? Thirdly, has the acceptance been communicated effectively? Fourthly, at the moment when the acceptance is deemed to have been effective, is the offer still open? Fifthly, are there any exceptions to the aforesaid rules of offer and acceptance? Finally, is an agreement sufficiently certain?
Chapter
1. Agreement
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the components of agreement; an essential ingredient of a contract. Traditionally, an agreement is comprised of an offer and a corresponding acceptance. There are two types of agreement: bilateral and unilateral. Bilateral agreements are by far the most common in practice and consist of a promise in exchange for a promise. Unilateral agreements consist of a promise in exchange for an act. This chapter analyses the agreement process in terms of offer, acceptance, and revocation of offers in bilateral and unilateral scenarios in order to provide structures and scenarios for future use. It also explains the two-contract analysis which is used to impose pre-contractual liability in English law.
Chapter
2. Agreement
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams and exercises help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. A contract requires that the parties reach an agreement which normally consists of a matching offer and acceptance. This chapter discusses the following: the objective test of agreement; identifying an offer and acceptance; rejection, counter-offers and inquiries; communication of acceptance including the postal rule and the contrasting rule for revocation; mode of acceptance; the death of an offer; and unilateral contracts.
Chapter
3. Offer and acceptance: bilateral contracts
This chapter analyses the key elements traditionally required for the formation of a bilateral contract. Contracts are bargains. The natural way to make a bargain is for one side to propose the terms and the other to agree to them. So contracts are almost invariably made by a process of offer and acceptance. However, the lack of offer and acceptance does not necessarily preclude the existence of a contract, if a bargain can be discerned from the facts in some other way. The chapter begins by explaining what constitutes an offer, and discusses various common scenarios. It then examines the requirements of acceptance, since this is what is required for a contract to be concluded. It considers the possibilities that an offer might be revoked by the offeror; or rejected by the offeree; or the offeree might ask for further information; or the offer might lapse.
Chapter
2. Agreement
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams and exercises help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. A contract requires that the parties reach an agreement which normally consists of a matching offer and acceptance. This chapter discusses the following: the objective test of agreement; identifying an offer and acceptance; rejection, counter-offers and inquiries; communication of acceptance including the postal rule and the contrasting rule for revocation; mode of acceptance; the death of an offer; and unilateral contracts.
Chapter
1. Agreement
James Devenney and Adam Shaw-Mellors
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the components of agreement; an essential ingredient of a contract. Traditionally, an agreement is comprised of an offer and a corresponding acceptance. There are two types of agreement: bilateral and unilateral. Bilateral agreements are by far the most common in practice and consist of a promise in exchange for a promise. Unilateral agreements consist of a promise in exchange for an act. This chapter analyses the agreement process in terms of offer, acceptance, and revocation of offers in bilateral and unilateral scenarios in order to provide structures and scenarios for future use. It also explains the two-contract analysis which is used to impose pre-contractual liability in English law.
Chapter
2. Formation of the contract
This chapter identifies the key elements required for a contract to be formed. It looks in depth at agreement, breaking it down into offer and acceptance. An offer is distinguished from an invitation to treat in principle, and specific examples of communications which are commonly identified as invitations to treat or offers are considered (e.g. advertisements, displays in shops, auctions, and website ‘shops’/advertisements). The chapter looks at termination of offers by various means, including counter offers and revocation. What constitutes an acceptance is addressed, and the special rule relating to the time of effectiveness of posted acceptances (‘the postal rule’) is considered, as is its extension to contexts such as e-mailed acceptances. The ‘battle of the forms’ is also looked at.
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