Offer cases

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Carlill v Carbollic Smoke Ball Co

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Carbolic Smoke Ball advertised that any person taking their smoke ball as directed and catching flu could claim £100 from them. Mrs Carlill took the ball as directed and still caught flu. She claimed her £100 and Carbolic Smoke refused.
Held: She could sue and claimed £100. It was an offer to the whole world that she had accepted. Her compliance with the terms had turned it from an offer to the whole world to contract with her personally.

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A captain of a ship decided to step down during a trip and went back to working as a normal member of the crew. Upon returning, he tried to claim wages from the owner of the ship, but the ship owner was unaware of Taylor's decision to quit his job as captain and he had not received an offer from Taylor to work in alternative capacity. Held: His claim failed because Laird did not have an offer from the commander to do a different job, so there was not a binding contract.

Wilkie v London Passenger Transport Board

On a bus journey, it was implied by the parties' actions that a contract was formed.

Bowerman v ABTA

A travel agents contained notices stating that it was covered by ABTA. It was held that even though customers did not expressly accept this in words, their acceptance of it was implied by their conduct which was booking a holiday with this travel agent.

Fisher v Bell

A seller had a flick-knife for sale in his shop window.
Held: display is an invitation to treat and not an offer for sale.

Harvey v Facey

H wanted to buy F's farm so sent the following by telegram: 'Will you sell me Bumper Hall Penn? Telegraph lowest price.' F replied with: 'Lowest price acceptable £900'. H claimed this was an offer by F to sell to him.
Held: this was merely a statement of price and not an offer open to acceptance.

Pharmaceutical Society of GB v Boots

Boots supermarket style meant customers selected goods from shelves and took them to the counter to pay. They were accused of offering for sale goods that required the supervision of a pharmacist.
Held: that the display was an invitation to treat, not an offer for sale; this took place at the till point where the pharmacists was situated. As a result Boots was found not guilty.

Gibson v Manchester CC

G entered into negotiations with the council to buy his council house after receiving a letter from them stating they may be prepared to sell the house to him. When G returned his form the council refused to sell.
Held: the Council's proposal was an invitation to treat. When Gibson replied this was the offer which was rejected by the council. As a result there was no binding contract of sale.

Partridge v Crittenden

D was charged with unlawfully offering for sale wild live birds after putting an ad in the paper.
Held: the advertisement was an invitation to treat, if it was an offer then there may be problems when stocks ran out.

Lefkowitz v Great Minneapolis Surplus Stores

The store advertised a sale at 9am Saturday; 3 fur coats worth $100 for only 41 - first come first served. On the day, the seller refused to sell a coat to one of the first 3 customers as he was a man.
Held: the man had accepted the terms of the offer so was entitled to the coat for $1.

Hyde v Wrench

An offer was made to sell at £1000. The buyer offered £950. The seller refused so the buyer insisted it be sold to him for the original price of £1000.
Held: the offer of £950 had terminated the original offer of £1000. As a result he did not have to sell it to him.

Stevenson v McLean

The buyer responded to an offer to sell iron by asking whether credit terms were available.
Held: Asking whether credit terms were available was a request for more information, and therefore did not constitute an offer or a counter offer.

Ramsgate Hotel v Montefiore

An offer to buy shares was made in June. Acceptance was attempted in November.
Held: Offer had lapsed due to the time that had passed.

Routledge v Grant

G offered his house for sale for a period of 6 weeks. Before this time had passed, G tried to withdraw his offer.
Held: that was fine as long as there had been no acceptance.

Byrne v Van Tienhoven

D wrote from New York to Cardiff offering to sell goods. When the offer was received, acceptance was telegraphed to New York. However, 3 days earlier D had written to withdraw the offer which did not arrive until after acceptance had taken place.
Held: The contract was legally binding as soon as acceptance had taken place.

Offer cases

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