Contract Law

Kemik

Kemik

Kemik

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Hello,

Has anyone here got experience with contract law? I have some coursework to do but need some assistance deciding if an email is an acceptance or counter-offer.

Here's the situation:

On Sat 1st Jan 2007 a newspaper published Bob’s advert stating “1 bottle of wine only £10.00.” Sophie is arranging a party and upon seeing the advert (on 1st Jan) she sends Bob and e-mail stating “I accept your offer – please send me 3 bottles of wine at a price of £30.00.”

Bob is on a trip and does not return until the evening of Tues 4th Jan. He looks at his e-mail that same evening and at 9pm sends an e-mail to Sophie, confirming her order, saying that the wine will be dispatched upon receipt of a cheque for the full amount payable.

That same evening (4th Jan 2007), the wine, is featured on a well-known, late-night, wine show and it receives terrible reviews. Sophie decides that she does not want something that has been described as tasting like “sewage” and rings the telephone number quoted in Bob’s advert, despite it being 10pm. As luck would have it, Bob is still awake and answers the phone. Sophie tells him that she is cancelling her order, but Bob responds by saying “it is too late – you've made a contract when you sent in your order and I have now sent you my acceptance”. When Sophie checks her e-mail, the e-mail from Bob accepting her order is in her inbox.
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Is bob's "confirmation" email an acceptance or counter-offer?

Btw, this is only a small amount of the question. The question itself is basically "Advise Sophie of her situation" and I'm going through it's different stages. I'm going to give both sides but I need to decide which is the stronger.

Thanks.
 
I've got a thick Law for Business book here but it's no help. My lecturer just says "You're doing well. Keep at it!".
 
I would have said its a counter offer as a new variable has been added into the initial details. The payment method and that the wine will not be dispatched until the payment has been received.

By requesting 3 bottles at £30.00 Sophie is making a request which is met with an offer subject to condition - unless Sophie accepts the conditions in this new offer she is not contractually obliged.

Although the above could be completely wrong - its been ages since I touched on contract law stuff.

edit:

I will expand on the above.

Basically the scenario is covering two aspects of a contract - offer and acceptance and methods and times of issuing an acceptance.

If Sophie had agreed to payment by cheque and receiving the goods only after the cheque had been received then the offer was received before she tried to cancel it. (Of course at this juncture we are ignoring all other legislation such as distance selling regs etc).

But the conditions of the sale are not explicit in the initial contact and are only specified later on. As Sophie has never accepted these additional conditions I fail to see how she can be bound to the contract.
 
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I am not going to do for you so a few things you need to be thinking of

1 - Identify which is offer, acceptance and invitation to treat
2 - The postal Rule and relating to opening office hours (1st Jan) and the law relating to electronic communications.

p.s. The question is ALWAYS advice the client, there is no point on listing the law, you need to tell her what her rights are and what she needs to do and what happens if she doesn't do it.
 
The newspaper advert is an invitation to treat. Sophie is making the offer. Consideration and intent to create legal relations is there but I cannot decide if Bob's confirmation email is acceptance or a counter-offer.

I can see that Bob may be adding more conditions by saying he'll only send when he receives payment, making his reply a counter-offer but then again, payment terms were not discussed and it's always expected that the seller receives payment before sending the item. It's common sense. In which case it's acceptance. Possibly Sophie doesn't want to pay via Cheque? Not sure if payment method is a big thing here though.

Distance selling regulations
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I don't think I should include this as we haven't even touched it on the course. It's simply a contract law module.

2 - The postal Rule and relating to opening office hours (1st Jan) and the law relating to electronic communications.
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I don't think the postal rule counts here as its instant communication. I'll read up on electronic communications. If it's acceptance then Sophie cannot revoke her offer as she's already received the email. If it's a counter-offer then she doesn't agree to the counter-offer and so she's not bound.
 
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I know nothing about law, but I would think sophie can simply not send payment. niether party has suffered any loss, so I dont think anything would stand up in court.
 
Regardless of whether Sophie has received the goods, she is entitled to a 7 day cooling off period giving her unconditional rights to cancel the contract.
 
Raymond Lin looks like you know a bit about contract law. Seen as I've answered your questions and shown I don't want you to just do my coursework for me could you please give me your opinion on Bob's confirmation email. There are arguments for both acceptance and counter-offer and I will write about them, but at the end of the day I need to be bias to one area or the other and I want it to be the right one.
 
First, you can't use the distance selling regulations in this question because it is NOT what it is asking. You can write up a perfectly coherent answer but would still fail on the question.
 
Kemik said:
Raymond Lin looks like you know a bit about contract law. Seen as I've answered your questions and shown I don't want you to just do my coursework for me could you please give me your opinion on Bob's confirmation email. There are arguments for both acceptance and counter-offer and I will write about them, but at the end of the day I need to be bias to one area or the other and I want it to be the right one.
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I will need to get my books out first and I will get back to you later on it. I got to write up christmas cards up now.
 
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