Contracts made by post are complete when and where the letter of acceptance is posted.
Lord Cottenham LC said that the explanation for the contract arising was that there was a usage of trade to accept a postal offer by post. The Post Office was treated as the common agent of both contracting parties. That reason is not satisfactory.
Lord Cottenham LC
(1848) 6 Bell’s App 195, [1848] EngR 303, (1848) 1 HLC 381, (1848) 9 ER 805, (1848) 1 HLC 381
Commonlii
Scotland
Cited by:
Cited – Carmarthen Developments Ltd v Pennington SCS 24-Sep-2008
carmarthen_penningtonSCS2008
Contracts had been entered into for the sale of plots of land, which were conditional on planning permissions being approved by the purchaser. The buyer could waive the conditions to remove the sellers’ rights to resile. The buyer obtained the . .
Cited – Four Seasons Holdings Incorporated v Brownlie SC 19-Dec-2017
The claimant and her family were in a car crash while on holiday in Egypt. The claimant’s husband and his daughter died. The holiday had been booked in England and the car excursion booked in advance from England. The hotel operator was incorporated . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 August 2021; Ref: scu.276450