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Henthorn v Fraser (1892) CA
On July 7, 1891, the plaintiff—who was illiterate—was at the defendants' Liverpool office when they presented him with an offer to buy a number of dwellings. The letter was brought home to Birkenhead by the plaintiff. The defendants retracted their offer via postal mail to the plaintiff on July 8th, between 12:00 and 1:00 pm. The plaintiff's attorney posted the plaintiff's acceptance of the offer at 3:50 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., the defendants withdrew, and at 8:30 p.m., the plaintiff accepted.
Despite the fact that the offer was not made by post, it was held that there existed a contract because acceptance had already been finalized at the time of posting. The notion that the postal rule was predicated on an offeror-to-offeree implicit consent to treat the post office as the offeror's agent was rejected by both Lord Herschell and Kay LJ. According to Lord Herschell:
I should prefer to state the rule thus: where the circumstances are such that it must have been within the contemplation of the parties that, according to the ordinary usages of mankind, the post might be used as a means of communicating the acceptance of an offer, the acceptance is complete as soon as it is posted.
On July 7, 1891, the plaintiff—who was illiterate—was at the defendants' Liverpool office when they presented him with an offer to buy a number of dwellings. The letter was brought home to Birkenhead by the plaintiff. The defendants retracted their offer via postal mail to the plaintiff on July 8th, between 12:00 and 1:00 pm. The plaintiff's attorney posted the plaintiff's acceptance of the offer at 3:50 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., the defendants withdrew, and at 8:30 p.m., the plaintiff accepted.
Despite the fact that the offer was not made by post, it was held that there existed a contract because acceptance had already been finalized at the time of posting. The notion that the postal rule was predicated on an offeror-to-offeree implicit consent to treat the post office as the offeror's agent was rejected by both Lord Herschell and Kay LJ. According to Lord Herschell:
I should prefer to state the rule thus: where the circumstances are such that it must have been within the contemplation of the parties that, according to the ordinary usages of mankind, the post might be used as a means of communicating the acceptance of an offer, the acceptance is complete as soon as it is posted.
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