Mary, a keen pottery collector, saw a notice for an auction at James Pottery Lim
ID: 421831 • Letter: M
Question
Mary, a keen pottery collector, saw a notice for an auction at James Pottery Limited on September 30th 2017 in the Daily News. She traveled 300 kilometers, to attend the auction in order to bid for a particularly rare item of Mozart pottery, specifically mentioned in the list of items to be auctioned. However, when she got to the auction site, she found a notice outside stating that the auction had been cancelled. Mary thereafter proceeded to a nearby antique shop and saw an item of the same type of pottery she had come to bid for, which the price ticket stated as $5000. Mary indicated to the shop owner, Anthony, that she was only willing to pay $4,000 for it. However, Anthony said he would sell it for $4,500. Mary then indicated to him that she desires some time to think about it over lunch; Anthony subsequently, agreed not to sell the identified pottery before Mary returned. However, when Mary returned to purchase the pottery, she found that Anthony had already sold it to someone else, who had paid $4,500 for it.
In the context of contract law, advise Mary whether she can take action against Anthony, for not selling the pottery to her
Explanation / Answer
Explanation:
Oral promise can be legal bind as legal contract when there are certain element of contract is present, an offer and acceptance and mutual agreement over offer.
In this case Anthony has told that he intend to sell that antique pottery for $4500 and not less than that amount to which Mary told that she need time to thing untill lunch and not to sell that Antique untill lunch time to which Anthony agreed that he will not sell untill she returned. Mary has not offer anything to Anthony she just asked for time to think on whether she want to accept offer of Anthony to sell pottery at $4500 or not, so Mary couldnot take any legal action against Anthony.