Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Termination of an Offer - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The plaintiff was given the option to buy property for £750 pounds which would remain open for 14 days
      - The following day the vendor's secretary posted a letter of revocation. Subsequent to the posting of the letter of revocation, but before its arrival, the plaintiff posted a letter of acceptance
      - The court held that the contract was formed when the letter of acceptance was posted but the revocation letter was not effective until it was received
    - - Also a case concerning the postal rule, in which the offerors letter of revocation reached the offeree after they had posted their letter of acceptance. Therefore, an enforceable contract had been entered
      - The rationale for applying the general rule is to promote certainty so the offeree, who has accepted the offer made to him by post, knows that there is a contract and he does not have to wait to see if a revocation letter will subsequently arrive
        
        To be effective, the revocation must precede complete acceptance
        
        It is not necessary that the person who made the offer communicate the revocation. It is sufficient that the person to whom the offer was made knows from any reliable source that the offer is withdrawn
    - - In the sale of a house,, the plaintiff was informed by a third party that the property had been sold to somebody else. This third party was a stranger to the transaction and had not been asked by the defendant to inform the plaintiff that the property had been sold
      - Armed with this knowledge, the plaintiff handed in a letter of acceptance, and subsequently sued for breach of contract
      - The Court said that the revocation was reasonably communicated to the plaintiff and was valid. The purported acceptance came to late as the plaintiff knew that the vendor no longer wished to sell to him
        
        This approach is criticised as it imposes a responsibility on the offeree to determine if his source is reliable
        
        It also absolves the offeror from the necessity to communicate the revocation personally
- - - - An offer to purchase a perishable commodity whose price fluctuates rapidly will have to be accepted more rapidly than an offer to purchase a durable commodity that is not subject to short term price variations
  - - - Ramsgate Victoria Hotel v Montefiore
        
        An offer made in June to buy shares was not open for acceptance in November
      - Lynch v Governors of St. Vincent's Hospital
        
        An offer to renew a contract of employment that was originally made in February was validly accepted in December
        
        Where there is already a pre-existing contractual relationship between the parties, an offer may be open for acceptance for a considerable period of time
- - - - A house was offered for sale for £1000, and when the plaintiff indicated that he was willing to pay £950 the defendant refused
      - When the defendant then attempted to accept the offer for £1000, the defendant refused the sale
        
        The Court took the view that the original offer had been terminated by the plaintiff's counter offer
    - - an enquiry as to whether or not the subject matter of the contract would be delivered over a period of several months was viewed by the Court as a mere inquiry and not a rejection of the original offer
- - - - The offer may be accepted until the offeree learns of the death of the offeror