a fairly long definition so let’s put it another way It Is where from an objective standpoint there is an expression of willingness by the offeror to be bound by its terms once it is accepted by the offeree Now then, an offer may be made to an individual, it may be made to group it may be made to the general public. so for example a reward for information or a reward for finding on returning a dog. an offer may be written it may be spoken it may be implied by conduct, now one important point for law students to remember is that what in fact amounts to an offer can and certainty does give rise to differences of opinion, so for example, during the bargaining process there may be a series of communications between the offeror on the one hand on the offeree on the other, as they move towards a final agreement and so It may be difficult to be exactly sure whether a specific statement was an offer, or whether it was only part of continuing negotiations between the parties. It is these that you have to be careful of because exarniners tend to seize on and explojilt_Lle e when the ‘re writin contract law uestions the want ou to discuss the fine line distinctions b
usin
the cases and
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In deterrninin
If a
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communication Is an offer or not. Now one possible approach in determining whether there Is an offer is to examine whether they were expected to bargain further, were the parties expected to bargain further or whether the communications made to that point showed a clear willingness to be bound if the other party agreed or assented, now this is easier said than done, as the cases conflict at times.
In fact, to understand the principle of offer any discussion must consider the two contrasting cases of Stora and Manchester City Council in 1974 and Gibson the Manchester City Council in 1979. Now both cases were concerned with Manchester City councirs policy of selling off council houses to its tenants who were living in them, now councils in England tend to be the largest social landlords and in a particular area and at any time, Manchester City Council was controlled by the Conservative party and this was an era when there was a conservative party policy to make homeowners of their council tenants, to basically persons who had been renting their properties now had the right to buy them, and this was considered the “right to buy scheme” making people owners of the, own property
Now Mr Stora and Mr Gibson were two such tenants who wanted to buy their council house. However, control of Manchester City Council passed to the Labour Party who of course took a rnore paternalistic view of spelling of housing stock of the council, and they resolved to discontinue the sale of council houses, and what we will discuss next is how the council’s communication to each of the two gentlemen was viewed by the court and the determination by the courts of the status of each communication.
By way of recap therefore, Trityl, Pollock and Anson Sais that “a contract is a legally enforceable agreement the requirements of a contract or agreement meaning offer and acceptance, intention to create legal relations and consideration an offer Is an expression of willingness by the offeror to be bound once there is acceptance by the offeree”.
We will continue with offer as well as the two cases raised earlier and in that lecture we will look at the contrast in cases of Stora and Gibson and further consider the situations which are distinct from an offer is shown as being distinct from an invitation to treat
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