Sunday, August 30, 2015

AGC (Advances) Ltd v McWhirter

case-note legal contract

(1977) 1 BPR 9454

An auctioneer at an auction does not make an offer to sell; bidders are the offeror. No contractual claim can arise unless and until the bidder's offer is accepted usually by the fall of the hammer, which means that the vendor is not bound to sell to the highest bidder.

This general rule does not change: (1) by an announancement at the auction that the highest bidder shall be the purchaser; (2) by an announancement that the property is on the market or the auction is without reserve.

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern)

case-note legal contract

[1953] 1 QB 401

This case is concerned with when a sale took take in a self-service pharmacy.

As per Somervell LJ, "...in the case of an ordinary shop, although goods are displayed and it is intended that customers should go and choose what they want, the contract is not completed until, the customer having indicated the articles which he needs, the shopkeeper, or someone on his behalf, accpets that offer."

As per Lord Goddard CJ, from whom this case is appealed:

"Therefore, in my opinion, the mere fact that a customer picks up a bottle of medicine from the shelve in this case does not amount to an acceptance of an offer to sell. It is an offer by the customer to buy and there is no sale effected until the buyer's offer to buy is accepted by the acceptance of the price."

Therefore, the display of goods for sale, whether in a shop window or on the shelves of a self-service store, is ordinarily treated as an invitation to treat, not an offer.