Contract Law - Seminar 5 Offer Gibson v Manchester City Council [1979] 1 All ER 972 " Gibson demanded council perform their obligation to him, council denied there was any obligation " Gibson had asked the council to inform him of the price of buying the council house for which he now lived and details of a possible mortgage " The council wrote back, stating it may be willing to sell the house for £2,180 but maximum mortgage it could provide was £2,177, letter invited him to make a formal application to buy the house by completing the enclosed form " He then returned the application and once his request to lower the price of house was refused, he wrote again asking them to proceed with his application form " The house was removed from the Council Maintenance list and onto its house purchase list " When labour won control, they scrapped the scheme that had been put in place by the conservatives " Lord Denning felt there was enough correspondence for there to be a contract " House of Lords felt that the words 'may be prepared' were not terms that could be an acceptance too - there wasn't an offer there was an 'offer to treat' " The council didn't intend the letter to make a binding agreement, it was to inform him they may be willing to sell if he made an offer " Mrff Gibson's reply amounted to an offer but there was no acceptance by the council Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Ltd [1953] 1 QB 934 " The Pharm Society sued Boots for selling poisons (drugs) contrary to sff 18 of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act 1933ff " The Act made it an offence to sell certain drugs without the supervision of a registered pharmacistff " Society agued Boots had sold certain poisons without the supervision of a registered pharmacist when two people had picked up drugs from the self-service shelves and put them in their baskets " Boots argued that the drugs had to be taken to the counter where there was already a pharmacist, the sale wasn't made at the self-service shop - it was an invitation to treat " The C of A held that the sale was made at the cashier's deskff " The customer made the offer at the till and the cashier could accept or reject itff " The display at the shelves was an invitation to treatff " According to Contract, it is the consumer that is making the offer, which can be rejected or approved by the cashier Fisher v Bell [1961] 1 QB 394 " Defendant displayed a flick-knife in his shop windowff " He displayed it when it was a criminal offence to offer flick-knives for sale " A police constable thought he was making an offer to sell the knife " Court held that no offence had been committed
" Both counsel agreed the display was, under contractual