Tuesday, 12 May 2015

ELEMENTS OF A VALID CONTRACT- ACCEPTANCE




ELEMENTS OF A VALID CONTRACT- ACCEPTANCE
This is the external manifestation of assent by the offeree.  By acceptance an agreement comes into existence between the parties.  Acceptance takes place at a very subjective moment when the minds of the parties meet, i.e. Consensus ad idem.   This is the moment at which an agreement comes into existence.  However, this subjectivity must be “externalised”.  This is what is referred to as acceptance.
This offer and acceptance give rise to consensus, hence agreement.  These two elements constitute the foundation of every contractual relationship but cannot by themselves constitute a contract.
a) The offeree must have been aware of, and must have intended to accept the offer, when he did what is alleged to be the acceptance.
(b)          The offeree's assent must be notified, or made known, to the offeror.
                                Exception
   An uncommunicated acceptance will be effective if, from the words of the offer, the offeror can be regarded as having waived the right to be informed of the acceptance: 
(c)           An offer made to the general public can be accepted by anybody who fulfils, or performs, the conditions stated therein
(d)          An offer made to a class of persons can be accepted only by a person of that class.
(e)          An offer made to a particular person can be accepted only by the particular person.
(f)           The acceptance of an offer must be unconditional
 An offer terminated by a counter - offer cannot be revived by a subsequent tender of performance thereof.
(g)          An acceptance of an offer communicated to the offeror verbally by the offeree is effective from the moment the offeror hears the offeree's words
(h)          If the offeror and offeree negotiate by telephone the acceptance is complete the moment the offeror hears the offeree's words of acceptance
(i)            If the offeror and offeree negotiate by telex the acceptance will be effective from the moment that the telex message is received by the offeror
(j)           If the offeror expressly or impliedly authorised the offeree to transmit his acceptance by post the acceptance will be effective at the moment the letter of acceptance is posted.                   
Implied Authorization to accept by post occurs if:The offeror posted his offer but did not tell the offeree not to use the post, 

No comments:

Post a Comment