The principle of law is whether the element of agreement required to form a legally enforceable contract has been established between Isabella and Siena.
In order to form legally enforceable contract, there are three elements required which are agreement, intention and consideration.
The element is need to discuss in here is the existence of agreement between both parties which are Isabella and Siena. Agreement in contract can be defined as a meeting of the consensus or minds where both parties comprehend what the essential terms of the contract are.
Elements of agreement required are offer and acceptance. Offer include offeror and offeree which offeror signifies a willingness to contract on terms and offeree assents to the terms of the offer as acceptance. There are several requirements of offer to be satisfied.
Firstly , offer must be promissory and sufficiently complete. The offer must outline all fundamental details and worded clearly to convey the offeror’s willingness to honour the terms of the offer if acceptance happened.
In Harvey v Facey 1893 AC 552 case, Harvey and Facey discussed future possible trade of Bumper Hall Pen by using telegram. Harvey asked lowest cash price of Bumper Hall Pen Facey would agree to sell to him. Facey replied the lowest cash price which is 900 through telegram. Harvey agreed with that price and wanted to purchase the property at that price Facey provided. However, Facey refused to sell and Harvey sued. Harvey thought he had an contract with Facey which “lowest cash price for Bumper Hall Pen 900” is an offer. The court decided that it was not a legally enforceable contract. It was merely a statement providing information on what terms Harvey might be willing to sell and it is not a promise to sell the pen to him. As the result, quotation of price is not an offer.
Secondly?according to Do and Duperouzel, offer must be intended to be bound on acceptance and must be more than a mere expression of interest in doing business.
In Partridge v Crittenden 1968 2 All ER 421 case, Partridge put an advertisement of “Bramblefinch cocks and hens, 25/-each” in the magazine. The RSPCA was prosecuting him for the statutory offence of unlawfully offering wild birds for sale. Even so , the court held that it was not an offer as it merely an “invitation to treat”. The Advertisement was an invitation for people who interested in offer to buy the advertised birds. Therefore, all advertisements are not considered as offers.
In addition, offer can be made to a particular person or even the whole world.
In Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co 1893 1 QB 256 case, the company Carbolic Smoke Ball published advertisement which offered 100 pounds reward for any person who used the smoke ball three times a day and caught influenza or any other disease. Carlill caught influenza by using smoke ball and asked company for 100 pounds reward as promised on advertisement. However, the company refused to pay Carlill. The court held that advertisement was an offer because it made to particular person of accepting this offer. Therefore, it was intended be legally binding in this case.
