The issues that are brought up in this question deal with the concept of Offer and Acceptance, Agreement and Counter-offers. The main question that one should ask is: was there a binding contract between Cory and Eve? between Cory and Dan? or none? There is an initial unilateral offer of £300 put forward by Cory in order to sell his computer. The duration for which the offer is open to acceptance is not specified as it indicates no fixed time limit in which the offeree has to act, thus it will be available until a party decides to act upon the offeror’s promise and to communicate an acceptance that complies with the terms of the offeror, see Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1983] 1 QB 256, Court of Appeal. Without this, a contract cannot
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It is highly probable that the content of Eve’s response will contain a denial of the offer as a result of the fact that there has already been two counter-offers so most of the propositions have already been made. The unlikeliness that they will further try to bargain on the price is much high. In this case, Cory could decide to move on and give the priority to Dan. He finds out about Dan’s response email that has actually been sent before Eve’s first response, 48 hours after having sent the second counter-offer to Eve. Nevertheless, it is not clearly expressed that Dan’s response to the offer is an acceptance or a counter-offer once again. If it is an acceptance, Cory would be allowed to consider but most probably will have to sell the computer to him. It is believed that in a unilateral contract, the acceptance need not to be communicated, but the performance of the requirements is enough to constitute an acceptance. It can be believed that the acceptance took place when the response was sent, since that is the performance of the act, or that it took place when it has been received. But, then again, this remains debatable on the basis that the postal rule exception does not apply to this case since they used instantaneous means of communications. It is usually considered as complete when the offeror receives the acceptance. On the other hand, if Dan’s response was not an acceptance but a counter-offer, even though he had sent the response first, Cory and him would not have been legally bound whenever he sent his response since a counter-offer is viewed as a rejection of the initial offer. In this case, even if Cory had received and opened the response before Eve’s, there would still be no binding contract unless Cory accepts
It is highly probable that the content of Eve’s response will contain a denial of the offer as a result of the fact that there has already been two counter-offers so most of the propositions have already been made. The unlikeliness that they will further try to bargain on the price is much high. In this case, Cory could decide to move on and give the priority to Dan. He finds out about Dan’s response email that has actually been sent before Eve’s first response, 48 hours after having sent the second counter-offer to Eve. Nevertheless, it is not clearly expressed that Dan’s response to the offer is an acceptance or a counter-offer once again. If it is an acceptance, Cory would be allowed to consider but most probably will have to sell the computer to him. It is believed that in a unilateral contract, the acceptance need not to be communicated, but the performance of the requirements is enough to constitute an acceptance. It can be believed that the acceptance took place when the response was sent, since that is the performance of the act, or that it took place when it has been received. But, then again, this remains debatable on the basis that the postal rule exception does not apply to this case since they used instantaneous means of communications. It is usually considered as complete when the offeror receives the acceptance. On the other hand, if Dan’s response was not an acceptance but a counter-offer, even though he had sent the response first, Cory and him would not have been legally bound whenever he sent his response since a counter-offer is viewed as a rejection of the initial offer. In this case, even if Cory had received and opened the response before Eve’s, there would still be no binding contract unless Cory accepts