Legal Analysis: Contract Law Case Study on Offers and Acceptance

This case study delves into various scenarios under contract law to determine the existence of legally binding agreements and potential breaches. It examines situations involving Aditi, Bernie, Celia, and David, focusing on elements such as offer, acceptance, and consideration. The analysis determines that no valid contracts were formed in Aditi's case due to lack of communicated acceptance and proper withdrawal of the offer. Celia's claim for compensation is unlikely to succeed as the auction was merely an invitation to treat, not a binding contract. Similarly, David did not enter a valid contract for the Nimbus broom because his initial bid was withdrawn before acceptance, and the auctioneer rejected his subsequent offer. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of offer, acceptance, and consideration in forming a valid contract, with references to relevant legal cases and statutes.

LAW Coursework

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................2
Question 1 Advise Aditi and Bernie whether they had a legally binding contract and whether
Aditi was in breach of that contract............................................................................................2
Question 2- Advise Celia whether her claim for £160 compensation is likely to succeed.........3
Question 3- Advise David whether he had entered into a valid contract to buy the Nimbus
broom..........................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The branch which govern and regulates the transactions which takes place between the
parties is the law of Contracts. It is defined as the any agreement which can be made enforceable
in the court of laws is called as legally formed contract. The objective behind making of said
legislation is to ensure the best interests of the parties to whom some loss has been faced as a
result of breach of the agreement(Ali, 2018) . Also for the formation a legal contract there must
exist certain aspects which are addressed as the essentials elements of any agreement. The
following project report will cover the three different case studies each comprising of some
elements of contracts in order to ascertain whether there lies the legal formation of contract or
not whether it stands binding on the concerned parties and also whether the said claim of
compensation as in the case of Celia is likely to succeed or not.
TASK
Question 1- Advise Aditi and Bernie whether they had a legally binding contract and whether
Aditi was in breach of that contract.
There lies certain essentials which are required to fulfil in order to constitute as legal contract
such as agreement, contractual intention and consideration. Further, the first essential which is of
the agreement is said to be completed when one party makes an offer or proposal to the other
party and the other party accepts the same without placing any further conditions. Moreover, the
said arrangement must be accompanied with a valid consideration in order to make the validity
of the agreement. Also the made acceptance must be properly communicated to the offerer by the
offeree which means that mere silence does nit account to the acceptance for the made proposal.
Also with reference to the case of Aditi, it is very much required to have the understanding of
difference between the concepts of offer and invitation to offer. Generally, the invitation to treat
is a concept which prevails in the case of auction, bids, display of goods in the shops and made
advertisements be it by online or offline(Fulford, 2020).
Specifically, with respect to the given, which in itself includes two different arrangements
between different parties. In both the cases there stands no valid contract as the one of the
essential element of contract which bis acceptance, does not takes place. First with respect to the
Aditi and Bernie, as the acceptance was not communicated to the Bernie there stands no

formation of a contract as mere silence to the proposal does not amount to the acceptance. In the
case of Felthouse v. Bindley, where the nephew after making a offer to his uncle said that he will
mean that the contract has been taken place if he does not hear anything from him in return.
Here, the court held that there stands no contract between the nephew and his uncle as one
cannot consider the silence as acceptance.
Moreover, with respect to the offer between Aditi and the auctioneer, also there stand no
legal formation of any contract as the proper deny of offer which is the, communication for deny
has been communicated to the auctioneer by the Aditi for withdrawing their wands from the
process of auction. Also the negligence on the part of office for hearing the answering machine
does not bind the Aditi as from her side the communication has been made. Moreover, in the
case of Adams v. Lindsell, it was said by the court that acceptance is said to be communicated
when the same has been initiated or made while following the due care which is reasonable in
normal circumstances for any prudent man to hear. Mainly, this case has outlined the postal rule,
which says that when the letter has been addressed in an adequate manner then the same is said
to be communicated from the side of the concerned party.
Question 2- Advise Celia whether her claim for £160 compensation is likely to succeed.
In the Contract Law of UK, Auction does not amount to formation of Contract. It is only
treated as a Invitation to Treat whereby a party invites another party for making an offer. A
contract is when an agreement is created between the parties and which includes a promise
which is enforceable by law (Hoekstra, 2021). Withdrawing any property or thing from the
auction before the day of the auction and selling it privately is the discretionary decision of the
auctioneer. In an auction, offer is made by the intending buyer in the form of a bid.
From the given case scenario it is clear that there was no formation of contract between
the auctioneer and Celia due to the very fact that the property was withdrawn before sale. So it
cannot be included under the title of breach of contract and it does not make the auctioneer liable
to pay or compensate Celia for the expenses that she incurred in travelling. For the formation of a
valid contract it is essential that all the elements are present which are Offer, Acceptance,
Consideration and Intention. But this was a very clear case of Invitation to Treat. It implies that
an Invitation to treat cannot be accepted, it is merely an invitation for inviting offers from several
parties. In the famous case of Partridge vs Crittenden, it was held by the court that an
advertisement is not an offer but should only be treated as an Invitation to Treat. Here the

defendant had placed an advertisement in a magazine which was not treated as an offer (Kadhim,
2021).
So it is clear that compensations are awarded only in the conditions where a contract
exists and the party suffers due to its breach. Without existence of a contract merely an
advertisement of auction does not amount to creation of contractual conditions and obligations.
Even though Celina travelled 65 miles by spending money in travelling and losing wages for the
day off to bid for a Lego set, she is not liable to get her expenses compensated. Because the
auctioneer is free to withdraw and sell his property whenever he wants due to the fact that it was
only Invitation to Treat.
Question 3- Advise David whether he had entered into a valid contract to buy the Nimbus
broom.
The main ingredients or elements for formation of a contract are Offer, Acceptance,
Consideration i.e. something of value should be exchanged between the parties and legal
intention. But an auction is not an offer but an invitation for offer. The original call for bids by
the auctioneer is termed as an Invitation to Treat. Auctions are governed by the Sale of goods
Act 1979 under its section 57 (2), it has been stated that whenever something is present for sale
in an auction that sale is complete when announcement of the completion is made by the
auctioneer by confirming it with fall of hammer. And until this happens the bidder has all the
freedom to retract their bid (McKendrick, 2020). This makes it clear that when David withdrew
his bid in the first instance, he was entitled to do so because the bidding was not completed.
David while bidding for the Nimbus Broom was making an offer to the auctioneer for
forming a contract by the consideration of the amount of bid and showing his legal intentions for
the same. While making the offer when David realized that he was bidding for an amount which
was far more than what should be he exercised his right and withdrew which clearly states that
there was no formation of a valid contract by the parties. In the second instance, when the
auctioneer again started the bidding for the Nimbus Broom he was again inviting offers from the
parties. When David made the offer of buying the Broom in the auction by the bid of £5, he
made it with a legal intent so that a contract could be formed between them. But It was not
accepted by the auctioneer because he felt that the bid was not enough according to the price of
the broom which he wanted to auction and this was visible and clear when he withdrew the

broom from the auction sale, thus due to the non- acceptance of the offer and the consideration
which was presented to the him, there was no formation of a valid contract between David and
the auctioneer (Papantoniou, 2020).
CONCLUSION
The following report concludes that there lies certain essential elements which are
required to be fulfilled in order to constitute a valid agreement which are the offer, acceptance
and valid consideration. The all the given three case studies comprises of the elements of
contract law. For the first question, it summarizes that there stand no valid formation of contract
between the Aditi and auctioneer as well as Bernie. For the second question, there comes no
valid claim for the compensation and for the third question, there also occurs no valid contract
as in first instance the bid was withdrawn by the David himself and later on the item was
withdrawn from the process.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, A., 2018. Electronic contract and consumer protection issues in India; Emerging legal
challenges and remedial measures. International Journal of Research in Social
Sciences, 8(7), pp.521-547.
Fulford, A., 2020. Contracting with students: Re‐thinking Higher Education as invitation to
treat. Higher Education Quarterly, 74(1), pp.63-74.
Hoekstra, J., 2021. Introduction to Contract Law–REVISION GUIDE.
Kadhim, N., 2021. ART LAW AND THE BUSINESS OF ART. Art Antiquity & Law, 26(1),
pp.89-96.
McKendrick, E. ed., 2020. Sale of Goods. Taylor & Francis.
Papantoniou, A.A., 2020. smart contracts in thE nEw Era oF contract law. Digital Law
Journal, 1(4), pp.8-24.