Hyde v Wrench

Wrench - sell farm - Hyde - £1200

Hyde - decline - Wrench - sell - Hyde £1000 - final offer

Hyde - offer - £950 (June8) - Wrench refused - inform - Hyde (June27)

June29 - Hyde - agree to buy - £1000 - w/o additional agreement

Wrench - refused to sell - Hyde sued

Hyde did not succeed, as there was no binding contract.


Lord Langadale :
Under the circumstances stated in this bill, I think there exists no valid binding contract between the parties for the purchase of this property. The defendant offered to sell it for £1000, and if that had been at once unconditionally accepted there would undoubtedly have been a perfect binding contract; instead of that, the plaintiff made an offer of his own, to purchase the property for £950, and he thereby rejected the offer previously made by the defendant. I think that it was not afterwards competent for him to revive the proposal of the defendant, by tendering an acceptance of it; and that, therefore, there exists no obligation of any sort between the parties