Common Law

Alan is a qualified accountant and his father Ben, who owns a small business, a bookshop which specialises in acquiring and selling rare books. He recently saw an advertisement in a specialist book magazine for a first edition copy of the only book written by Bruce. The advertisement, which had been placed by Chris, stated that it was ‘on offer for £1,000'. Ben phoned Chris stating that he would buy the book for £750. Chris replied that he would sell it for £900. Ben then said he would need time to think about buying the book at that price. Chris agreed not to sell the book to anyone else until Ben phoned him back in three days time with his final decision.

On the same day, Dan came into Ben's shop and asked if he had any first edition copies of the Bruce book and told him that he was willing to pay £1,500 for one. Ben agreed to sell a Bruce first edition to Dan and immediately phoned Chris to say that he would accept his original asking price of £1,000. However, Chris informed him that he had already sold the book to Eve for £1,250.

Subsequently Ben wrote to Eve offering her another rare book for £1,000. Eve replied to Ben by return of post stating that she agreed to buy the book on offer at his asking price. However, after posting the letter of acceptance she decided that she had already spent too much money on books and sent Ben a fax telling him to ignore her letter when it arrived.