Harvey v Facey
A statement of the lowest price a party would accept is not an offer to sell.
Facts
The parties were negotiating over a property in Jamaica called Bumper Hall Pen. The plaintiffs sent the defendant a telegram reading: Will you sell us Bumper Hall Pen? Telegraph lowest cash price. The defendant replied by telegram: Lowest price for Bumper Hall Pen £900. The plaintiffs then telegraphed: We agree to buy Bumper Hall Pen for the sum of nine hundred pounds asked by you. Please send us your title deed in order that we may get early possession. The defendant made no reply and did not sell, and the plaintiffs sued for specific performance.
Legal principle
The Privy Council held that there was no binding contract. The plaintiffs had asked two questions: whether the defendant would sell, and what his lowest price was. The defendant answered only the second, giving information about the price, and gave no answer to the first. A statement of the lowest price at which a person might sell is not an offer to sell at that price. The plaintiffs' final telegram was therefore itself an offer, which the defendant never accepted.
Related cases on offer and acceptance
- Adams v Lindsell (1818) 1 B & Ald 681
- Blackpool and Fylde Aero Club Ltd v Blackpool Borough Council [1990] 1 WLR 1195
- Brinkibon Ltd v Stahag Stahl und Stahlwarenhandelsgesellschaft mbH [1983] 2 AC 34
- Butler Machine Tool Co Ltd v Ex-Cell-O Corp (England) Ltd [1979] 1 WLR 401
- Byrne & Co v Van Tienhoven & Co (1880) 5 CPD 344
- Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256
- Dickinson v Dodds (1876) 2 Ch D 463
- Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corp [1955] 2 QB 327
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