Problem QuestionProblem question: offer, acceptance and the postal rule
A contract law problem answer that identifies each issue, applies the authorities to the facts, and reaches clear advice for each party.
- Paper type
- Problem Question
- Subject
- Law
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Length
- 2,000 words
- Pages
- 7 pages
- Referencing
- OSCOLA
The brief
Advise the parties in the scenario provided on whether a binding contract was formed, and if so when. 2,000 words, OSCOLA referencing, footnotes excluded from the word count.
Why this sample works
What a marker would single out, and what to look for as you read.
- Issues identified up front and addressed in a logical order
- IRAC applied consistently to each issue
- Alternative outcomes considered where the facts are ambiguous
- Clear advice to each party in the conclusion
Contents
- 01Introduction and issuesIn preview
- 02Was the catalogue an offer or an invitation to treat?In preview
- 03Was Bina's order an offer?
- 04Did the posted letter amount to acceptance?
- 05Effect of the email revocation
- 06Advice to the parties
Preview
Problem question: offer, acceptance and the postal rule
Introduction
The central question is whether a contract was formed between Bina and Oakfield Furniture Ltd for the sale of a dining table, and if so, at what point. Answering it requires four issues to be resolved in turn: the legal status of Oakfield's catalogue, whether Bina's order constituted an offer, whether Oakfield's posted letter was an effective acceptance, and whether Oakfield's later email withdrawing from the sale had any legal effect.
Was the catalogue an offer?
Advertisements and catalogues are generally treated as invitations to treat rather than offers, because a seller with limited stock cannot be taken to have promised to sell to everyone who responds.¹ Oakfield's catalogue stated that items were 'subject to availability', which reinforces that reading. The catalogue was therefore not an offer, and Bina's order form is the first candidate for one.
Bina's order specified the item, the price and her delivery address and was signed. It displays a clear intention to be bound on those terms if Oakfield agreed, and so is likely to amount to an offer.² The question then becomes whether, and when, Oakfield accepted it.
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Request the full sampleReferences (extract, OSCOLA)
- Adams v Lindsell (1818) 1 B & Ald 681.
- Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corp [1955] 2 QB 327 (CA).
- Holwell Securities Ltd v Hughes [1974] 1 WLR 155 (CA).
- Partridge v Crittenden [1968] 1 WLR 1204 (DC).
Samples are reference material written for a different brief. Use them to understand structure and argument; submitting one, in whole or in part, would be an academic integrity breach.
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