On 1 January Bob receives an email from Mike Jones in which Mike writes: "I offer to purchase 30 Toshiba Satellite laptops for $ 300 each". In response, on 2 January Bob sends an email to Mike saying "I accept your offer, but the price would have to be $ 350 each".  On 3 January Mike sends an email back saying "No, I can't agree to that". On 5 January Bob then sends an email saying "OK, I accept your offer of 1 January", however when he sends the computers to Mike with an invoice for $ 9 000, Mike sends the computers back and refuses to pay for them, saying that he has purchased computers elsewhere.

On 10 January, Bob sends a letter to Tom stating "Please send me 200 Pentium 5 hard-drives at $ 50 each". On 12 January Tom puts a letter into the post stating "I agree to sell you the hard drives will deliver them as soon as possible". Bob subsequently finds that he no longer needs the hard drives, and on 14 January sends Tom an email saying "Please cancel my order of 10 January". Tom's letter reaches Bob on 15 January, and the hard-drives are delivered a few days later with an invoice for $ 10 000, which Bob refuses to pay.

Steve has done favours for Bob, such as looking after Bob's cat when he (Bob) went on holiday. On 1 February, Steve says to Bob "I need a new computer for my travel agency". Bob says "OK, because you looked after my cat, I'll give you a new computer". Bob then changes his mind and says to Steve: "Sorry, mate, trading has been bad these last few weeks - I just can't afford to give you the computers".

Assume that you are Bob's legal adviser and that he has asked you for legal advice. Advise him as what contractual liability, if any, he has in the above circumstances, citing relevant legal authority and using the ILAC format.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Issue The issue involves assessing Bobs contractual liability in three scenarios 1 The laptop transaction with Mike Jones 2 The harddrive transaction ... View the full answer