Table of Contents

Contract
A Contact is an agreement between two parties, two companies or more people that is legally binding. It can be in a form of written or verbal and both have same legal importance in the eyes of law. There should be an agreement between parties where one party offers and the other party accepts. In order to make the contract valid, the contract must have four essential elements namely offer, acceptance, consideration and intension to be considered or regarded as binding contract. If one of these is missing the agreement of the parties would not be legally binding.

Task 1 Elements of contract 1. Offer
An offer is an expression of willingness to a contract in certain terms. There should be an intension there, so that the offer become binding upon acceptance. After the offer there should not be further negotiation, bargaining or discussion required. [G.H. Tretel, The law of contract, 10th edition, p.8].
The word '' Expression is indicating such as a letter , email, newspaper, fax and as long it communicates the basis on which the offeror is prepared to contract and intention is something objectively judged by the court. The smith case of smith v. Hughes (1871) emphasizes the intention of the parties.
The nature of an offer

Must be communicated to the offeree
Taylor v Laird 1856 Taylor gave up captaincy and then worked as member of crew, and later come back and claimed wages. But the claimant flailed to claim his wages

Can be made to the whole world as we have seen Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893]
Must be certain: Guthing v Lynn [1831]
If horse brings luck I will pay £ 5 more is too vague.
Can be withdrawn at any time before acceptance: Routledge v Grant [1828]
B’ offered house for sale for 6 weeks and Withdrew early, legitimate as no acceptance had occurred.
Withdrawal must be communicated: Byrne v Tienhoven 1880
Unilateral offer cannot be withdrawn during performance of the offeree
Errington –v- Errington & Woods 1952
A father promised his daughter and son in law after the mortgage is paid off it would be theirs although the mortgage signed his name. So father's promise might be withdrawn after mortgage paid off.

Unilateral contract
The contract in Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co was a unilateral contract, one in which the offeree accepts the offer by performing his or her side of the bargain. It can be contrasted with a bilateral contract, where there is an exchange of promises between two parties.
An offer can be terminated by the action of the parties in any of six ways:

Revocation Rejection by the offeree Lapse of time Occurrence of a terminating conditions Death Insanity, incapacity, insolvency or

Invitations to treat
An invitation to treat is not an offer but it is persons' willingness to negotiate a contract. A person making an invitation to treat does not intend to be bound as soon it is accepted. Display of goods in shops, window or shelves of self service in store is regarded as an invitation to treat not an offer. This case is a good example of invitation Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co

Shopping: - in shops or supermarkets price marked items on display on the windows and shelves. In Fisher v Bell (1960) the defendant displayed flick knifes in his shop windows
Time table and tickets for transport: ticket for buses or railway is an invitation to treat rather than an offer as we have seen Denton v GN Railway (1856)
Mere statements of price it is a statement of minimum price that a seller can sale his or her item. As we have seen the case Harvey v Facey 1893 sale of pen A: '' telegram lowest price''. B: '' lowest acceptable £ 900 ''. Not an offer it is merely statement.
Lots at Auction: Harris v Nickerson 1873 an auctioneer advertised he will be hosting auction for office furniture but letter withdrew the items from the action before the sale
Acceptance
An acceptance is a final