The Valid Contract

To address the problem, we need to compare and contrast the modern form of the postal service: electronic mail (e-mail). Although email is favorable because it makes communication remarkably fast and you can send things for “free”, in many ways the good old letter is better. We want to identify when and how the letter is better. Even though it is free to send an email, you still need access to internet and a computer, both in which cost hundreds of dollars, opposed to a letter where you can have everything you need to send a letter under a dollar. A letter is also hard evidence, it’s harder to forge than an email, since handwriting is unique, and typing is not. Computers can have many internal errors; the computer can crash, information can be lost or leaked to someone.

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.

Every business sends out and receives a large number of letters, notices, circulars, telegrams, memoranda reports, statements, pamphlets, enquiries, etc. The mail centre ensures a continuous interaction between internal staff and external customers/ suppliers. It helps the business to establish and maintain contact with customers, suppliers, and others concerned. 
In order to ensure prompt and efficient handling of post, the mail centre system should be planned and organized, with laid down procedures. Due to the importance and the vital role played in the organisation of the post,

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.

This is a clear expression of a party accepting agreement to the terms of the offer.

A contract comes into existence with the initiation of an offer made by one party, which in turn should be ‘accepted’ by the other party. The element of offer and acceptance thus initiate the legal process of the formation of a valid and binding contract. The significance of acceptance with respect to the contract laws stems from the fact that the proposed offer must be accepted by the promisee and forthwith be communicated to the promisor. Together offer and acceptance create a promise which can

As per 14 (1), Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth), which are powerful in the recipient 's server clarifies that in the wake of having sent through email affirmation. Thus, once it was clear that the offeror does not check email, offeror "s dynamic server clarifies that an understanding came to.

The offer and acceptance model is flawed- only an agreement is necessary. In order to fully comprehend this statement, we must first establish what constitutes and offer and what constitutes acceptance. “An offer is a statement by one party of willingness to enter into a contract on stated terms, provided that these terms are, in turn, accepted by the party to whom the offer is addressed”. Acceptance is “…an unqualified expression of ascent to the terms proposed by the offeror”. The “Offer and acceptance model” is based on the court’s adopt the “mirror image” rule of contractual formation. Applying the definitions stated above, we can take this to mean that there must be a clear and unequivocal offer which must be matched by an equally

The offeree is the only party with legal power to accept an offer, thus forming a contract. In addition, for the contract to be considered accepted, the offeree must accept all the terms of the offer unequivocally. This is called “the mirror image rule”. For example, if the offeree stated “I will purchase your home, but I wish the drive way was repaved”. The offeree accepted the terms, making this an accepted contract. An example of non-acceptance is if the offeree stated “I will purchase your home, if you pave the driveway”, This would be a

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’

Under Common Law, for a contract to exist, three elements must be present: an offer, an acceptance and a consideration. The notions of offer and acceptance under Common Law are not fundamentally different from those in French contract law, although their effects may differ. The offer indicates the willingness of a party to enter into a bargain, and the acceptance reflects the agreement of the other party to the offer.

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

Contracts are part of business law. It is an essential part of business law because it offers a base for businesses to expand and develop within the business/economic society. The 6 main components that form a contract are; offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to be legally bound, capacity to contract and legality of the promises. If one in six of these elements were missing a contract would not exist; it is necessary to include all required aspects into the contract as it is used as evidence. In this essay, the element of acceptance will be discussed immensely with evidence of cases and legislations to weather acceptance is a definite and unqualified assent to an offer, on all of its terms and if any acceptance given conditionally will not result in a legally binding agreement.

The postal rule was developed to facilitate contracting at a distance. Initially, bargaining at a distance often posed a great challenge to bargaining parties especially through the postal services. This was mainly because via the mail parties could not know simultaneously whether they had reached an agreement. As a result a general rule indicating the time of an acceptance had to be established. Consequently the postal acceptance rule was developed .The postal rule function to create an exception to the general rule, which stipulates that an acceptance will only be effective upon receipt