0:00 welcome to the contractor one course at 0:02 the Faculty of Law at the

University of
0:04 the West Indies can tell campus 0:06 today's lecture is on the topic of offer
0:09 before we get into the details of what 0:12 an offer is and what the applicable
0:14 rules are 0:15 let's take a brief look at contracts in
0:18 general in this course we are 0:21essentially looking at two separate

0:23 questions the first part of this course0:25 we will look at the question of
whether
0:27 there is a contract and then we'll move 0:31 on to the second main question
which is
0:34 what are the terms of the contract 0:36 what's the content of the contract now
0:39 in terms of the first part of the course 0:42 and looking at the elements of a

0:44 contract is essentially four elements is 0:47 offer this acceptance is

consideration
0:50 and intention to create legal relations 0:52 those are the four elements that we
0:54 always have to identify when we look at 0:58 whether or not there is a contract
and
1:00obviously today we're going to look at 1:01 the first of these offer now with all
of
1:05these we always apply an objective test 1:07 what that means is we do not
inquire
1:11into the subjective minds of the people 1:14 involved but we look at the
situation

1:16 objectively and we can look at a case 1:19 which is Kennedy and lee get it lee
1:23 there was an exchange of correspondence 1:25 in respect of a contract now
objectively
1:30 looking at all the correspondence you'd 1:32 have to conclude that indeed
there was a
1:36 meeting of the minds that the parties 1:38 agreed to a contract however one
of the

1:41 parties contended that that was not 1:43 their intention 1:44 they didn't mean
to enter into a
1:46 contract 1:47 well what someone was thinking what was
1:50 going on in their mind that is subjected 1:52 objective is looking at the
evidence the

1:55available evidence and in this case that 1:57was the actual correspondence
between
1:59the parties and that bore out very 2:01clearly that the parties had in fact
2:04agreed to a contract so we will always 2:06apply an objective test when we
asked
2:09these questions of whether or not there 2:11was a meeting of the minds
2:13 whether something was an offer wether

2:15 something was an acceptance and so on 2:17 and so forth

2:18 now let's look at the concept of an 2:21 offer and the details and the rules that
2:24 go with it in some more detail 2:27 first of all perhaps we should clarify
2:31 that when we say offer in contract law 2:34 what we actually mean is definite
offer
2:37 or definite promise that means a 2:38 definite promise by the offer or to the
2:41 offeree now why do we have to use the 2:45 word definite well an offer is
definite
2:49 because if it is accepted the offer or 2:53 is bound by their promise and so
2:57 therefore it is definite another way of 3:00 saying it would be that an offer is
3:03 definite if it is capable of being 3:05accepted in its entirety and you'd have
3:10 to say something like I agree or I agree 3:14with your offer if an offer is
capable 3:16 of being

answered with the words i agree :19 then it is a definite offer 3:22 let's have a look
at some cases to try
3:25 and distinguish a definite offer from 3:28 other types of things that may look
like

3:31 offers but in terms of contract law do 3:34not qualify do not amount to offers
the
3:38 first case we're going to look at is a 3:40case called Harvey and facie and 1893
3:43 now this case originated in jamaica and 3:46it was for the sale of a property or
the
3:49 extensible sale of the property and what 3:52the court had to determine was
whether
3:54 there was an actual contract for the 3:55 sale of this property and the court
was
3:57 able to rely on the exchange of 4:00 communication which had occurred
between
4:02 the two parties here Harvey and facie 4:04 now is always different possibilities
is
4:08 a possibility that the court might have 4:10 found that there's an offer and it
was
4:12 accepted hence the contract or perhaps 4:14the court would have found that
there
4:16 was no offer at all or perhaps that the 4:18 offer was not accepted and there
was no
4:20 contract now luckily in this case there 4:22 was the correspondence and so the
court 4:25 could
4:26 regard to the exact wording of what the 4:28party said and indeed they sent
these
4:31messages by telegraph and so Harvey the 4:34buyer the extensible buyer said
will you
4:38sell us bumper whole pen Telegraph :42lowest cash price and serve paid now
4:46whether that is an offer really depends 4:48on whether it is definite and recall
4:51definite means that it is and the offer 4:55which is acceptable and if it is