2015-10-13
492
The offerer must intend to create a legal obligation if the proposal is accepted. People often make agreements that no one considers legally enforceable. For example, if two friends make a date to go to the movies, no contract is intended or formed. If either breaks the date, the other may be offended but cannot sue. There is no legal remedy (legal means to enforce the right). That is because social invitations are not intended to create legal obligations.
Before making a contract, parties will often discuss it. The parties often bargain to reach mutually acceptable terms. Sometimes one party may state tentative terms, inviting other parties to make offers. Advertisements in newspapers and magazines, on radio or TV, or in catalogues or direct mailings are generally invitations to others to make offers. They are not offers themselves. A person who advertises something for sale cannot be expected to sell to the thousands who theoretically might reply to the advertisement. Perhaps the seller has only a limited number of items. However, most business firms attempt to deliver merchandise as advertised to all who want to buy.
Sometimes an advertisement is worded to give a reader reasonable cause to believe it is an offer rather than an invitation to make an offer. This is true in ads, which promise to pay a reward for a lost pet or jewel. It is also true in direct-mail advertisements sent to one or just a few prospects. For example, someone trying to sell a very expensive yacht mails a promotional letter to ten prospects. The letter describes the yacht and offers it for a stated price to the first person whose acceptance is received on or before a stated date. This letter would be an offer.
If a statement sounds like an offer but simply is a joke, the words cannot be transformed into a contract by acceptance. The person to whom the statement was made should realize that no offer was intended.
