Contract Law Assignment - Essay Example

The above elements from are explained below. Offer and Acceptance. When one party proposes something to another, he is said to make an offer. If the party agrees to the proposal without any change in it, he is considered to have made the acceptance of that offer. Thus, when the offer is accepted in a mirror image condition, a contract is said to have been formed subject to other conditions. This mirror image rule is necessary to ensure that there is a consensus of the subject matter among the parties i.

e meeting of the minds between them. In other words, the acceptor has understood clearly what the offeror has meant. This is an objective test in English law to determine existence of a contract. An offer is always confused with an invitation to treat. Advertisements and displays in shops are the examples. They are not offers but invitation to treat. An acceptance must be unqualified and correspond to what the offeror purports to convey. A qualified acceptance becomes an offer and it is for the original offeree to accept or not, any change in the condition.

If the qualified acceptance is accepted, the original offeror becomes the offeree and the qualified acceptor becomes the offeror. . And not at the time of receipt of the letter by the offeror. If the letter is addressed incorrectly or posted improperly, postal rule will not apply. Contracts can also be concluded by fax and the Internet (Salzedo, Brunner and Ottley 2004). In Hyde v Wrench (1840) it was decided that a counter offer amounted to rejection of the original offer and therefore, subsequent acceptance of the original offer did not bind the offeree.

In this case, the plaintiff made a counter offer of ? 950 against the offer of ? 1,000 by the defendant to sell his farm. On refusal of the counter offer, the plaintiff accepted the original offer of ? 1,000 which the defendant did not agree to. Therefore, the plaintiff brought a suit for specific performance. It depends on the wording of the offer and reply by the offeree. Sometimes the offeree may purport to make some enquiry in connection with the offer made including some counter price when time limit to accept the offer has not ended (Oughton and Davis, 2000).

In such cases, it cannot be taken as counter-offer or rejection of the offer as held in Stevenson, Jacques and Co v McLean (1880). In Carlil v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893), the defendants advertised offering a reward to anyone who contracted influenza in spite of using their smoke ball meant to cure the disease. It was held that the advertisement was an open offer or unilateral to the whole world and hence, any one relying on the offer, bought the product was entitled to the reward if the product claim failed.

The defendant’s contention that it was a mere invitation to treat was rejected. However, in Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Ltd (1953), it was