OCR A2 Law - The Law of Contract - Formation of a Contract - Termination of an Offer (3)

4. Counter-Offers: Furthermore, another situation where problems may arise when terminating an offer is by "counter-offers". Counter-offers destroys the original offer therefore, the original offer is no longer open to acceptance. A case to illustrate this is "Hyde v Wrench". In the case the "offer" was £1000 for a piece of land but a counter-offer of £950 was made. This therefore destroyed the offer and there was no contract. AO2: Counter-offers must be distinguished from requests for further information as these aren't counter-offers and the offer will not be terminated.

A further case to illustrate this is "Stevenson v Mclean". In this case the "offer", was to buy some iron, a request was made to pay by installments and therefore, the offer was not terminated. AO2: Again, this may cause problems as it maybe hard to distinguish between the teo. A rejection of an offer has the same effect as a counter-offer also.

Subsequently, revocation may also cause problems when terminating an offer. The basic rule here is that an offer is valid "anytime" before "accpetance". In "Payne v Cave", it was stated if you wanted to revoke an offer, you must "communicate" this to the offeree. If you revoke by letter, then revocation is valid on receipt of the letter. A case to illustrate this is "Byrne v Van Tienhoven". In this case an "offer" was made following the revocation by post was sent. "But", accpetance was made via telegram and post therefore there was a binding contract. AO2: However, this can be difficult to ascertain as it depends what "reliable" constitutes to.