CONTRACT LECTURES TRANSCRIPTS 46 mins 20 secs
C. STRICKLAND
LECTURE 3
Track/Slide 6 02.04
We can now consider how an offer can be terminated by lapse of time in it being
accepted. If an offer is open for a specific length of time, acceptance will not be valid
after the date has passed. If no time is specified then the offer will normally only be held
to be open for a reasonable amount of time. Thus, an offeree cannot impose performance
of a contract on the offeror if several months have elapsed between the original offer and
purported acceptance of it. A case in point is
Ramsgate Victoria Hotel Co v Montefiore 1866.
In this case the defendant applied to buy some shares – that is, made an offer to buy some
shares – in June 1864. However, not until late November 1864 was his offer to buy taken
up and shares allocated to him. The defendant, by then, did not want the shares. In court
it was determined that he did not have to buy the shares allocated to him because the
plaintiffs had not responded to his offer to buy within a reasonable amount of time.
This point was also discussed in Manchester Diocesan Council for Education v
Commercial and General Investments Ltd 1969 in which Buckley J stated that it is
very difficult for the court to decide what is a ‘reasonable amount of time’ to the
satisfaction of both parties – that it will depend on the whole set of circumstances in each
particular case.
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