| Citation | Dickinson v dodds (1876)2 ch D 463 |
| Year of judgement | 1876 |
| court | Court of appeal of England and wales |
| Case type | Contracts |
| Appellant | John dodds |
| Respondent | George Dickinson |
| Bench | Mellish and James LJJ and Baggallay JA |
FACTS
On the day of June 10, 1874, John Dodds, the defendant, sent George Dickinson, the plaintiff, a written offer to sell his land for $800, with the condition that the offer would remain open until 9 AM on June 12, 1874. On June 11, 1874, George decided to accept the offer but didn’t immediately inform Dodds, believing he had until the specified deadline. However, on the same day, Mr. Berry, acting on behalf of John, informed George that Dodds had agreed to sell the property to Thomas Allan. George later left a written acceptance with Dodds’ mother-in-law on the evening of June 11th, but Dodds never received it.
On the morning of June 12th, Mr. Berry delivered a duplicate copy of George’s acceptance to Dodds at a railway station. However, Dodds claimed it was too late to accept the offer, as he had already sold the property to Thomas Allan on June 11th for $800, with a $40 deposit.
ISSUES
Whether an offer can be revoked by the offeror without an express or actual statement of revocation communicated to the offeree?
JUDGEMENT
J. James and J. Mellish urged that there is no concluded agreement between both parties therefore the plaintiff himself clarified that he took time to consider, and unless he communicated that he’s agreed with the agreement it will not be made completely. It means only an offer was sent to the plaintiff and even when the plaintiff reached to station and tried to communicate his acceptance to Dodd before 9’o o’clock he came to know that Dodd had already consented to sell his property to Allan. The offer will be open till Friday at 9 o’clock is only an offer not supported by a consideration or acceptance by the plaintiff.
Hence there was no binding agreement to keep the property unsold till 9 o’clock and it is clear that there is no meeting of minds between the two parties which is an essential element to make a legal contract.
OBSERVATION
Offer and acceptance are the essential elements of a contract with consideration because that shows the meeting of minds of both parties that should be communicated to each other then there will be a legally valid contract. In this case letter is an offer for sale of the property and the offer by the offeror had not been accepted by the offeree. Here the offeree didn’t communicate his acceptance to the offeree he thought that he had time. The offer said he had time till 9 A.M of Friday however that will be an open offer that hasn’t been accepted by the offeree and the offeror can approach other parties with the same offer so the court rejected dikinsons contentions and clarified that an offer solely cannot constitute a valid contract it can be revoked at any time by the offeror. In the present case, the offeror communicated the offer but the acceptance is not notified by the offeree. There is no meeting of minds which is required for a proper contract as Mr. Dodd had already agreed to sell his property to third party and he is unaware of Dickinson’s acceptance.
Thus, the court held that Mr. Dodd had only made a promise but not a legally valid contract with Dikinson. There was no binding promise to keep the offer because there was no proper agreement between the parties and Mr.Dodds allowed whatever he desired before complete acceptance by dikinson. When there is an open offer and that is not accepted yet by the offeree then there is no legal contract between parties the offeror can make similar proposals to other parties as well. Here if the consideration is involved then it would support the agreement to keep the property unsold till 9 o’clock as an agreement is more valuable than a mere offer to sell.
REFERENCES
https://www.legalserviceindia.com
This Article is written by Saketi Neeharika of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Intern at Legal Vidhiya.
