Contents
Chapter 1: Agreement and contractual intention 1
Chapter 2: Consideration and promissory estoppel
Chapter 3: Contracts and third parties
Chapter 4: Contractual terms
Chapter 5: Exclusion of liability
Chapter 6: Misrepresentation, mistake and illegality
Chapter 7: Duress and undue influence
Chapter 8: Discharge of a contract
Chapter 9: Remedies
And finally, before the exam . . .
Glossary of terms
Introduction
Guided tour
內容試閱:
1 AGREEMENT AND CONTRACTUAL INTENTION
Therefore, if an advertisement indicates that the advertiser
promises to pay something in
return for a particular course of action then the advertiser
is bound by that promise. For
instance, an advertisement that states ‘£100 will be paid
to anyone who can find my dog,
Lassie’ is a unilateral offer; however, saying to someone ‘
I will give you £100 if you find my
dog, Lassie’ is a bilateral offer which, if accepted, would
give rise to a bilateral contract. It is
the promise that is important here: the fact that it is made
in the form of an advertisement
which would normally be regarded as an invitation to treat
is irrelevant.
KEy cAsE
Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company Ltd [1893] 1 qb 256
Concerning: unilateral offer; advertisements
facts
The defendants sold a patent medicine the ‘smoke ball’.
They placed a newspaper
advertisement stating that they would pay £100 a very large
sum of money in 1893
to anyone who ‘contracts the increasing epidemic influenza,
colds, or any disease
caused by taking cold, after having used the ball three times
daily for two weeks
according to the printed directions supplied with each ball.
’ The claimant caught
flu after using the ball as directed and claimed the sum of
£100. The defendants
argued that the advertisement was a ‘mere puff’ and that,
in any case, there was no
offer made to any particular person and it was impossible to
contract with the whole
world.
legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the offer in the advertisement
was a unilateral offer to
the world at large which was accepted by the claimant. This
unilateral offer waived the
need for communication of acceptance prior to a claim being
made on the basis of it.
The claimant was therefore entitled to the £100.
The principle from Carlill also applies to advertisements
offering rewards. These are
traditionally treated as offers, rather than as invitations
to treat, since there is an intention
for the offeror to be bound as soon as the information is
given Williams v. Carwardine
1833 5 C & P 566.
Self-service and shop window displays
When goods are on display in a self-service shop or in a shop
window, their display does not
constitute an offer: it is an invitation to treat.