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Common Law Offer and Acceptance

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Page 1 of 13 The Principles of Contract This section discusses the factors that are vital to the formation of a valid contract: in legal terminology, offer, acceptance, consideration, and the intention to create a legal relationship. It then looks at the contents of the contract, the terms included by the parties and those implied by statute or the courts. The law of contract is of enormous complexity and the following material may be likened to a landscape painted with a ten-inch brush. Every day, many times a day, most people in modern society enter contracts or are affected by contracts entered into by others. It is easy to enter a contract; it is such an everyday experience that most of us do not realise when we have entered yet …show more content…

© Simpsons Solicitors Suite 1202 135 Macquarie Street Telephone: (61 2) 9247 3473 Facsimile: (61 2) 9247 3442 info@simpsons.com.au Sydney NSW 2000 Australia Page 3 of 13 Most offers may be withdrawn at any time up until they are accepted. Or, the offer may be made for a limited period and at the end of that period it will automatically extinguish (``I 'll buy that painting for $500 . . . You 've got 'til Friday ' '). It is also extinguished by any counter-offer. Thus if a collector offers $500 for a piece (offer), and the artist says ``You can have it for $650 ' ' (counter-offer), it is an implicit rejection of the original offer and destroys it. If the parties eventually settle on $500, that would involve the acceptance of another, newly made offer: Hyde v. Wrench (1840) 49 E.R. 132; Baker v. Taylor (1906) 6 S.R. (N.S.W.) 500. Sometimes, what looks like an offer capable of acceptance, is not. It is merely an indication of preparedness to negotiate. For example, if a gallery exhibits a painting and beside it places a little card detailing the artist 's name, the work 's title, and the price, that does not constitute an offer to sell that work at that price. It is merely an offer to negotiate, akin to an advertisement. If the collector goes to the gallery owner and says ``I 'll take it! ' ', he or she is not accepting a standing offer. Rather the collector is making an

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