contract question acceptance, revocation etc

LuLu215

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Reply 1

jacketpotato

The secret is to be utterly brutal in breaking the question down. Consider the legal effect of each relevant event in turn.

lulu215

what is Bob’s reply of ‘I cannot accept less than...’ ?!! To me, Bob is just stating information about the price; not accepting, nor offering. Probably just giving out another invitation to treat.

Treat "I will keep the offer open until Saturday" as a separate thing to the main contract for sale. Treat it in its own little paragraph. If its a legally binding obligation, then Bob breached that obligation and Alan can claim damages. "I will keep the offer open for you until Saturday" is a unilateral promise like a poster offering a reward for a lost dog or the advert in Carlill v Carbolic. The important problems with it are 1) consideration, 2) intent to create legal relations. The promise won't be enforceable unless there is consideration. The offer of a drink is potentially consideration, but it is past consideration. In short, it doesn't meet the conditions for past consideration to be valid; so the promise is unenforceable. There are cases on this; though I doubt whether you have time for that kind of case-law on the GDL.

lulu215

Also does it matter that Alan offers Bob a pint? Does this mean that the transaction is in a social context? Rather than a wholly commercial one? Or am I looking too deeply into this?! Or could this be seen as some sort of weird consideration?

Perhaps. But very very unlikely on the facts - this is quite a large and a negotiated transaction. The pint may indicate that the above promise to keep the offer open was a social one, however.

lulu215

But then what is Bob’s reply of ‘I cannot accept less than...’ ?!! To me, Bob is just stating information about the price; not accepting, nor offering

Perhaps. But its debatable. Usually if you say "I won't accept less than £1000" in a negotiation, that means you will accept £1000 - otherwise why on Earth would you say £1000?

lulu215

Also Alan states “OK, I accept your offer to sell the Utopian Red for £1,750 – when can I pick it up”. What does the ‘when can I pick it up’ amount too? To me, this is extra detail, in a separate clause to the first part of the sentence. Therefore not a counteroffer, if it was an offer at all (!)

"I accept your offer" is pretty unambiguous as a purported acceptance. "when can I pick it up" is useless extra detail.

lulu215

And does it matter that Alan has heard from his wife that Bob may have sold the stamp to Charles? this does not count as revocation of an offer does it? Since Bob would need to communicate the revocation to Alan. And although Alan’s wife has said that Charles now has the desired stamp, that is not to say outright, that Bob has revoked his offer. One only presumes this, since logically Bob only has one stamp and therefore the offer to Alan must have ended upon the transaction to Charles.

Don't get too bogged down in whether there has been revocation. The important thing is whether there was a revocation before any contract existed between A and B. Take the question very chronologically. Make sure you consider the "At 7.30 am on Wednesday Alan sends Bob an email saying: “OK, I accept your offer to sell the Utopian Red for £1,750 – when can I pick it up?” Unfortunately Bob’s email system diverts this email to his “junk mail” folder, so that he does not read it. At 2 pm on Wednesday Bob sells the stamp to Charles for £1,800." paragraph carefully first - precisely when is an e-mail judged "communicated"?