Silence As Acceptance Case Study

Question 1: Silence as Acceptance

What can be seen from the evidence on show there is no contract between Pat and Mingers Ltd. for the company has stated in the letter that they would take Pats silence as a form of accepting the contract, by doing this the company has unsuccessfully tried to create a new contract with their former client. Using silence as a form of agreement can only be used in a few ways: whether there has been a prior relationship existing between two parties in which it is “…customary for the two parties to treat silence as an acceptance” ,by indicating that “… acceptance may be made by silence or inaction” or if the silent party acts upon the agreement1.

Now one could say that since both Pat and Mingers Ltd had a prior agreement which could be used by Mingers as the reason for this correspondence but this probably would not hold

This a tactic used by insurance companies mostly to continue policies with their customers2. Though these approaches can be taken by Mingers, the fact that they have taken this approach at all seems very unprofessional. The fact that no other form of communication has been by the agency shows their willingness to let their client go.

The history of the use of silence as a form of acceptance case has shown mixed results regarding the approaches taken by Mingers. One of the oldest and most infamous is that of Felthouse v Bindley [1862] . This case involved the sale of a horse where the plaintiff sent a letter to the defendant about buying the horse stating that if he does not hear from the owner than the horse is his. It was hailed that silence cannot be taken as a form of acceptance meaning that there was no contract between the plaintiff and the