Contract Law Assignment

Authors Avatar

Contract Law Assignment

On Monday Samantha offered to sell her oboe to Penny for £1,000.  Penny replied
“I will buy it if I can raise the money”.  Samantha promised that she would not sell the oboe to anyone else before Saturday, and added that Penny could collect the oboe at any time before noon on Saturday.  On Wednesday, Penny phoned and left a message with Samantha’s daughter, Anne, saying that she had got the money and would collect the oboe on Saturday morning about 10.30am.  Anne forgot to tell her mother about the phone call.  On Thursday morning Samantha was entertaining friends and discussing the sale of her oboe.  Gillian was interested and offered to buy the oboe for £1,300.  Samantha was delighted with the offer.  Samantha posted a letter later that day to Penny saying that she could no longer have the oboe.  
Pat, the Postman, delivered the letter to the wrong address, and Penny, who was disabled, did not receive the letter.  She hired a taxi on Saturday morning to collect the oboe.

Advise Samantha and Penny of their legal rights.

The problem regarding Samantha and Penny is a very complicated one.  To fully answer it, to advise the two on their legal rights, we must consider various different legal issues.  We must pay particular attention to offer and acceptance, and to a lesser degree, consideration.  

So initially, we have a straightforward offer from Samantha on Monday to sell an oboe to Penny for £1000.  There is no problem with this offer, it states clearly the goods for sale and the price required to purchase them.  

The subsequent acceptance is another matter.  Penny replies with ‘I will buy it if I can raise the money’.  The question then arises, is this to be seen as conditional acceptance?  If this were to be considered such, then the acceptance would not necessarily be binding.  

Join now!

Samantha then promised that she would not sell the oboe to anyone else before Saturday and added that Penny could collect it anytime before noon on that day.  

Then on Wednesday, there is a phone call from Penny hoping to reach Samantha to tell of confirmation of accumulating the money required to purchase the oboe.  Unfortunately, Samantha was unavailable and her daughter Anne took the phone call.  Penny left a message with Anne that she had the agreed sum of money and would collect the oboe on the agreed day at 10.30am, in this case the Saturday ...

This is a preview of the whole essay