acceptance

acceptance in Contract Meaning

Acceptance may be a commitment or an act on the part of an offeree that indicates a desire to be bound by each of the terms and conditions that are included in an offer. In order for an offer to be considered accepted, it is necessary for there to be a complete and unreserved agreement to all of the conditions outlined in the offer. In accordance with the "mirror image rule," the conditions of the acceptance have to precisely mirror those of the offer. There is no binding agreement between the parties if the terms of the offer and the conditions of its acceptance differ in any way, even in a minor or insignificant detail.

There is no one set of guidelines that governs the manner in which acceptance may be conveyed. However, the offeror has the ability to prescribe a method of acceptance that the offeree is compelled to use. In theory, the offeree may use any way that it is acceptable to employ given the circumstances; this includes engaging in behaviour that demonstrates that he is accepting the offer. However, the offeror has the option of waiving the need that they comply with any defined manner. Have a look at our free notes.

Communication of Acceptance

An acceptance does not become binding until it is conveyed to the person who made the offer, as stated in the case of Felthouse v. Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35. An offer must be clearly accepted. The nephew showed interest in selling the horse to the complaint, but no contract existed. Therefore, the nephew's silence did not represent acceptance of the complainant's offer because silence did not amount to acceptance. There are exceptions to this:

Waiver of communication

In Re Selectmove Ltd. [1995] 2 All E.R. 531 Peter Gibson L.J. at 536 stated:

"Where the offeree himself indicates that an offer is to be taken as accepted if he does not indicate to the contrary by an ascertainable time, he is undertaking to speak if he does not want an agreement to be concluded. I see no reason in principle why that should not be an exceptional circumstance such that the offer can be accepted by silence. But it is unnecessary to express a concluded view on this point."

The Postal Rule Acceptance

When the offeree has a good reason to use the post as the method of communicating the acceptance, English law follows the peculiar postal rule that the acceptance is effective from the moment the letter of acceptance is posted (provided that it is properly addressed and stamped), and not when the contents arrives. This is in contrast to the rule that acceptance is only valid when it is communicated. The absurd consequence of the postal rule is that the person who made the offer is obligated to abide by an acceptance that has been posted, even though he does not yet know whether or not his offer has been accepted.

Unilateral Contracts

A contract that is made in the form of a promise in exchange for some act or condition that must be done by the offeree is frequently referred to as a unilateral contract. This is because the promise is given in exchange for the offeree doing the act or condition. The fulfilment of the act or condition that has been stipulated by the offeror constitutes both the acceptance of the offer to enter into such a contract and the compensation for doing so. The Carlill v Smokeball case is considered to be the prototypical illustration of a unilateral contract. There are a number of ways in which unilateral contracts are distinct from the more conventional sort of bilateral contracts; nevertheless, the authorities are unsure about some of these characteristics. In particular, the question of whether or not an offeror may effectively retract his offer when an offeree has started to undertake the act described in the offer but has not yet finished it — the so-called "Walk to York" dilemma – is one that is hotly debated. It is also fact dependent whether the offeror, assuming he has the ability to withdraw his offer under these conditions, is required to provide real notice of the revocation to the offeree or if he need just provide the same level of publicity to the revocation as he did to the offer in order to fulfil his obligation to do so. The second theory seems to be the more plausible one; yet, this issue has never been investigated in an English court case.

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