Introduction: Identify the Issues

Answer:

 Introduction: Identify the issues

There are two different situations above. First one is Lisa seen an advert and she took action. However the products were sold out. Second one is Selina, she posted a payment for an order however due to a postal delivery fault, the shop replier and told her the product was not available anymore. The main issue of these two situations is if Lisa and Selina has made contracts with the department store.

 Main Body: Discuss the law and argument to the question

First it is important to know what a contract is. A bilateral contract is promise in exchange for a promise. A unilateral contract is promise in exchange for an act performed.

Furthermore it needed to be clear that if there is an offer or only an invitation to treat between Massive and both Lisa and Selina. In general price lists in advertisement is an invitation to treat (Partridge v Crittenden, 1968). Offer is an undertaking by the offeror that he will be bound in contract by the offer if there is a proper acceptance of it. In these cases, Massive was the offeror, as it said started on 1st January, the first person on that day to purchase a 3-piece-suite could have it for £20. Lisa queued outside the shop all night and she was the first person to get in the store, which means she had accepted the offer by act performed so she was the offeree (Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co, 1893). In Selina's case, she called Massive, and asked the assistant about the table. The assistant replied that there was one table available, please post the payment and they would deliver it to her. If the assistant only replied that there was one available, which was a request for information, not a contract (Harvey v Facey, 1893). However the assistant also replied that post the payment and they would deliver it to her. Thus Massive was the offeror and Selina accepted the offer by action of posting the payment. Once she posted the payment, she had already performed an effective acceptance, which made it a contract (Household Fire Insurance Co v Grant 1879). To sum up, both Lisa and Selina had business contracts with Massive.

An offer can be terminated in two ways, rejection and revocation. The general rule is that an offer maybe revoked at any time before it is accepted. Once an offer has been accepted, it cannot be revoked because the offeror made a mistake. The offeree did not need to take responsibility of that mistake (Payne v Cave 1789). In the situations above, both Lisa and Selina had already accepted the offers therefore Massive would not able to revoke.