Law Beat

Offer and Acceptance - A few last points about Offers.

In the last part, I looked at the topic of Invitation to Treat which referred to a seller inviting others to make the seller an offer. Only when the seller accepted such an offer was there a contract.

In this part I want to discuss 3 additional aspects of an offer.

1. The person accepting the offer must know that he or she is accepting the specific offer. If this is not the case, then there is no intention to accept the offer and accordingly no contract. Where for example, there is a reward for information leading to the conviction of a criminal and someone comes forward with such information, the person coming forward with the information will only get the reward if he knew and was acting on the offer of the reward. If the individual merely came forward without knowledge of the reward then he would not be entitled to the offer. The reason for this that individual never knew and never intended to accept the offer of the reward and hence in contract law, he never accepted the offer. This is a controversially point in law and will differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

2. Where the person who makes the offer specifies how long the offer will be open for acceptance, the offer will lapse if acceptance is not communicated within the specified period. Conversely, where no time period for acceptance of the offer is specified, then in law the offer will only be open for acceptance for a reasonable time. This notion of reasonable time will vary depending on the facts of the case. For instance, where someone has made an offer to sell perishable items such as farm products, then "reasonable period" will be shorter because of the nature of the items.

3. Until the an offer is accepted, the person making the offer may withdraw his offer so that the person to whom the offer was made, will not be in a position to accept. This point needs no further discussion.

Well if you are ready, let us see how our friends Jack and Jill will get along today and what legal quagmire awaits them. On to the quiz. Don't forget to read the previous parts in the series since the questions build on what you previously learned.

In Part 5, we will look at the concepts of acceptance in a little more detail.

The principles of law presented in these articles are based on Canadian law. However, the information provided by the Fraud Bureau in this Law Beat series is not legal advice nor conveyed in the course of an solicitor/attorney-client relationship, but is intended merely as general information related to common legal issues. Your access to this article is subject to the Terms of Use and Disclaimer. You are not to rely upon this article for the basis of any decision you wish to make. If you have specific legal problem or question, please contract your legal advisor for specific legal advice relating to your question or problem.