Law of Contracts A (LLB 120) – Week 3 Lecture Notes .
- Assignment is online
- Requirements for a valid simple contract:
o Agreement
o Consideration
o Intention to create legal relations
o Sufficiently certain and complete terms
o The presence of these elements is assessed objectively
- Agreement: Offer and Acceptance
o Definite promise to be bound / willingness to be committed on terms stated
- see e.g. Gibson v Manchester City Council; Carlill v Carbolic; Pharmaceutical
Society; MacRobertson Miller; Mobil v Wellcome
o Use cases to support your argument
o Must propose an exchange - see e.g. Carlill v Carbolic; Australian Woollen
Mills
Quid Pro Quo
- Termination of the offer
o At the time of the purported acceptance, was the offer still open / available
to be accepted?
o Is the deal still on the table?
o An offer does not remain open forever to be accepted.
o An offer may have ceased to be effective at the time of a purported
acceptance because it has:
Been Revoked (Withdrawn)
Been Rejected
Lapsed
o Revocation:
An offer will cease to be effective where it has been revoked
(withdrawn)
As a general rule, an offer may be revoked at any time prior to
acceptance (Goldsbrough Mort v Quinn, Dickinson v Dodds)
Revocation is effective only when it has been communicated to the
offeree (Stevenson Jaques v McLean)
What will be taken to amount to an effectiverevocation?
Can an offer be revoked….if the offeror has stipulated that the offer
is to remain open for a specified period?
e.g. I offer to sell you my computer for $800 and give you until 2pm
tomorrow to make up your mind.
Can I revoke my offer before tomorrow at 2pm?
Would the situation be different if I agreed to hold my offer open until
tomorrow at 2pm in return for you paying me $10 to do so? i.e. where
an option had been granted by the offeror?
See Dickinson v Dodds, Goldsbrough Mort v Quinn
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https://www.coursehero.com/file/67471636/Law-of-Contracts-A-Lecture-Notes-Week-3docx/
, o Option:
Traditionally, it is where the promisee wishes to have more time
before accepting or rejecting…and pays the promisor to keep the offer
open for a particular time.
The option contract itself must be supported by the elements of
contract formation:
Offer
Accepted
Consideration
a. Giving up the right to revoke
o Revocation
Can an offer be revoked…in a unilateral contract ( where the
promisor makes a promise in return for the doing of an act), once the
promisee has begun to perform the required act?
e.g Could the Carbolic Smoke Ball Co have revoked its offer one week
after Mrs Carlill started using the smoke ball?
See Mobil Oil v Wellcome (1998) 153 ALR 198 which rejects previous
approach taken in Abbott v Lance and Veivers v Cordingley.
Revocation must be communicated whether bilateral or unilateral
Mobil v Wellcome
Was there a contract between Wellcome and Mobil in relation
to the 'nine for six' scheme?
a. Was an offer made by Mobil to Wellcome?
b. If an offer was made, had it been revoked by Mobil?
Is it open to an offeror to revoke an offer in a unilateral
contract once the offeree commences performance?
a. If an offer was made by Mobil and if it had not been
revoked, had Wellcome accepted the offer/provided
consideration in exchange for it?
b. If no contract, was Mobil prevented from resiling from
its promise to grant extension by an estoppel?
This study source was downloaded by 100000842568006 from CourseHero.com on 05-03-2022 20:47:24 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/67471636/Law-of-Contracts-A-Lecture-Notes-Week-3docx/
- Assignment is online
- Requirements for a valid simple contract:
o Agreement
o Consideration
o Intention to create legal relations
o Sufficiently certain and complete terms
o The presence of these elements is assessed objectively
- Agreement: Offer and Acceptance
o Definite promise to be bound / willingness to be committed on terms stated
- see e.g. Gibson v Manchester City Council; Carlill v Carbolic; Pharmaceutical
Society; MacRobertson Miller; Mobil v Wellcome
o Use cases to support your argument
o Must propose an exchange - see e.g. Carlill v Carbolic; Australian Woollen
Mills
Quid Pro Quo
- Termination of the offer
o At the time of the purported acceptance, was the offer still open / available
to be accepted?
o Is the deal still on the table?
o An offer does not remain open forever to be accepted.
o An offer may have ceased to be effective at the time of a purported
acceptance because it has:
Been Revoked (Withdrawn)
Been Rejected
Lapsed
o Revocation:
An offer will cease to be effective where it has been revoked
(withdrawn)
As a general rule, an offer may be revoked at any time prior to
acceptance (Goldsbrough Mort v Quinn, Dickinson v Dodds)
Revocation is effective only when it has been communicated to the
offeree (Stevenson Jaques v McLean)
What will be taken to amount to an effectiverevocation?
Can an offer be revoked….if the offeror has stipulated that the offer
is to remain open for a specified period?
e.g. I offer to sell you my computer for $800 and give you until 2pm
tomorrow to make up your mind.
Can I revoke my offer before tomorrow at 2pm?
Would the situation be different if I agreed to hold my offer open until
tomorrow at 2pm in return for you paying me $10 to do so? i.e. where
an option had been granted by the offeror?
See Dickinson v Dodds, Goldsbrough Mort v Quinn
This study source was downloaded by 100000842568006 from CourseHero.com on 05-03-2022 20:47:24 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/67471636/Law-of-Contracts-A-Lecture-Notes-Week-3docx/
, o Option:
Traditionally, it is where the promisee wishes to have more time
before accepting or rejecting…and pays the promisor to keep the offer
open for a particular time.
The option contract itself must be supported by the elements of
contract formation:
Offer
Accepted
Consideration
a. Giving up the right to revoke
o Revocation
Can an offer be revoked…in a unilateral contract ( where the
promisor makes a promise in return for the doing of an act), once the
promisee has begun to perform the required act?
e.g Could the Carbolic Smoke Ball Co have revoked its offer one week
after Mrs Carlill started using the smoke ball?
See Mobil Oil v Wellcome (1998) 153 ALR 198 which rejects previous
approach taken in Abbott v Lance and Veivers v Cordingley.
Revocation must be communicated whether bilateral or unilateral
Mobil v Wellcome
Was there a contract between Wellcome and Mobil in relation
to the 'nine for six' scheme?
a. Was an offer made by Mobil to Wellcome?
b. If an offer was made, had it been revoked by Mobil?
Is it open to an offeror to revoke an offer in a unilateral
contract once the offeree commences performance?
a. If an offer was made by Mobil and if it had not been
revoked, had Wellcome accepted the offer/provided
consideration in exchange for it?
b. If no contract, was Mobil prevented from resiling from
its promise to grant extension by an estoppel?
This study source was downloaded by 100000842568006 from CourseHero.com on 05-03-2022 20:47:24 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/67471636/Law-of-Contracts-A-Lecture-Notes-Week-3docx/
