Aspects of Contract & Negligence for Business

Most time, acceptance would be made in clear and loud matters, such as saying “Yes, I accept.” But silence would constitute acceptance of an offer where the common-law and statutory law allows. Supreme Court of Nebraska has confirmed in Joseph Heiting and Sons v. Jacks Bean Co that acceptance may be established by silence or inaction of an offeree and acceptance occurs when the buyer/offeree “does any act inconsistent with the seller/offeror’s ownership...” Neb. U.C.C. section 2-606(1)(c). In Joseph Heiting and Sons v. Jacks Bean Co, 463 N.W.2d 817, 236 Neb. 765 (Neb.,1990), Heiting (Plaintiff) offered to sell its beans at the posted price on September 30, 1987, but was never informed of acceptance or rejection of the offer. Heiting and Jacks

A contract is an official agreement between two parties. There are different types of contract, such as sale and purchase of a business agreement, partnership agreements, lease of business premises, lease of plant and equipment and employment agreements. The format can vary too. It can be face to face, written, or distance selling. The specifications of a contract involve offer and acceptance, the intention to create legal relations, lawful considerations, capacity and legal formalities such as terms and conditions.

i. Virtually instantaneous  general rule should apply (ie. contract is formed when the offeree’s acceptance is received by the offeror; per Lord Wilberforce in Brinkibon)4;

Manifestation: Acceptance of an offer requires a communication of the acceptance to the offeror from the offeree so in order to satisfy the mutual assent requirement. Pete acceptance could be inferred through his statement No problem you can let me know sometime within the next two weeks.

Acceptance-This basically means that the terms of the offer have been clearly understood and agreed to through consent and assent and at no time will the terms be changed.

‘Acceptance is a definite and unqualified assent to an offer, on all of its terms. Any acceptance given conditionally will not result in a legally binding agreement.’

Although Amy did not accept the offer from Dr Hu to purchase her medical equipment in the prescribed form of post, her acceptance is still valid. It was suggested that ‘where the offeror has prescribed a particular method of acceptance, but not in terms insisting that only acceptance in that mode shall be binding, that acceptance communicated to the offeror by any other mode which is no less advantageous to him will conclude the contract’ . Therefore suggesting that even though Amy did not respond via post as was asked by Dr Hu, the wording in Dr Hu’s email said that ‘you can respond’, can meaning that it was not specified as the only means of accepting the offer, and that other means of acceptance would be seen to form a binding agreement between the two parties. As Amy’s email was in no way less advantageous to Dr Hu it can be seen as a valid acceptance of the offer that was put to Amy. Amy sent her email of acceptance to the email that she received the email from, which conforms with Section 13A(a) of the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 (NSW) which states ‘the time of receipt of the electronic communication is the time when the electronic communication becomes capable of being retrieved by the addressee at an electronic address designated by the addressee’

Therefore, in a typical residential sales transaction, communication of acceptance can be made orally, e.g., by calling and advising the buyer of acceptance. This oral acceptance does not violate the Statute of Frauds because the contract itself has been written and signed. It is only the communication of acceptance that is oral.

Acceptance is the offeree’s manifestation of assent to the terms of the offer (Rogers, 2012). Acceptance was communicated by me signing the lease electronically and emailing it to the landlord. I also had to submit a background check, credit check and a security deposit. Rogers stated that “since a contract comes into existence as soon as the offeror’s offer is accepted by the offeree, problems can arise when parties are not dealing face to face when the contract is made” (Rogers, 2012). This leads to the general rule and acceptance is considered binding at the time that it is sent.

A contract is an arrangement between two or more parties that creates rights and obligations to each party. The essential parts of a contract are as follows:

As stated in the Gould Commercial Code Section 2-207 subsection 1, “A definite and seasonable expression of acceptance or a written confirmation which is sent within a reasonable time operates as an acceptance even though it states terms additional to or different from those offered or agreed upon, unless acceptance is expressly made conditional on assent to

Capable of acceptance by the offeree, offeree is the person receiving the offer. A valid agreement must be constituted by Offer and Acceptance. For the responses to an offer, everyone can accept

In BROGDEN v METROPOLITAN RAIL CO it was held the railway company had accepted by placing orders since the amendment of the document, and in TRENTHAM LTD v ARCHITAL LUXFER the court used the 'reasonable man' to identify whether or not there has been acceptance. Both cases seemed to have reasonable outcomes; therefore the courts had been provided with satisfactory rules to help them reach a appropriate verdict. There are various different rules regarding acceptance. There must be a communication of acceptance from the offeree to the offeror. The case of YATES BUILDING v PULLEYN deals whether there had been a prescribed acceptance or not. It was held that there was no practical difference to the offeror therefore the acceptance method was binding. However in the case of ENTORES LTD v MILES FAR EAST CORPORATION there was no prescribed acceptance, yet it was held that the contract was formed in England as that was there acceptance had been received by telex. Other rules that can be used to decide whether there has been acceptance include a waiver of communication of acceptance; silence, which isn't a valid acceptance; ignorance, generally there isn't a binding contract; and acceptance via post using the postal rule. The postal rule can often be misused, as it states that a contract has been formed as

Acceptance is a final and unqualified expression of consent to the terms of an offer. An offer may only be accepted by the person to whom it is made unless an agent is authorized to accept on behalf of that person. In addition, an acceptance must be made in the manner requested or authorized by the offering party. If the party to whom the offer is made

The postal rule better understood when described using a functional example. For instance an offeror sends an offer to a second party known as the offeree via post office. According to the rule of engagement the offeror can decide to revoke or cancel the offer any time before acceptance. This in turn gives the initiator of the deal an upper hand on the bargaining table. This means that the offeree is at a greater loss since once he /she receives the offere he does not know whether the offer still stands or the offeror had already revoked it. Moreover he/she doesn’t know when he is contractually bond since he cannot establish the exact time of receipt of his acceptance.