''Fisher v Bell'' 9611 QB 394 is an

English contract law English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the Industrial Revolution, it shares a heritage with countries ...

case concerning the requirements of

offer and acceptance Offer and acceptance are generally recognized as essential requirements for the formation of a contract (together with other requirements such as consideration and legal Capacity (law), capacity). Analysis of their operation is a traditional appro ...

in the formation of a

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

. The case established that, where goods are displayed in a shop, such display is treated as an invitation to treat by the seller, and not a contractual offer. The offer is instead made when the customer presents the item to the cashier together with payment. Acceptance occurs at the point the cashier takes payment.

Facts

The defendant displayed a flick knife in the window of his shop next to a ticket bearing the words Ejector knife – 4s, (i.e. four

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

s). Under section 1 of the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959 (which was expanded in 1961, after this case finished, to deal with the gap in the law): In late 1959, the claimant, a chief inspector of police, brought an information against the defendant alleging he contravened section 1(1) by offering the flick knife for sale.

Judgement

Bristol Justices

At first instance, the prosecution submitted that the defendant had displayed the knife and ticket in the window with the objective of attracting a buyer, and that that constituted an offer of sale sufficient to create a criminal liability under section 1(1) of the Act. For the defence, Mr Obby Simakampa submitted that the display was not sufficient to constitute an offer. The judges at

first instance First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

found that displaying the knife was merely an invitation to treat, not an offer, and thus no liability arose. The prosecution appealed.

Divisional Court

The Divisional court dismissed the appeal. Lord Parker CJ stated there was no offence because there was no "offer for sale". Although the display of a knife in a window might appear to "lay people" to be an offer inviting people to buy it, and that it would be "nonsense to say that twas not offering it for sale", whether an item is offered for the purpose of the

statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

in question must be construed in the context of the general law of the country. This, he said, clearly established that merely displaying an item constituted an invitation to treat. He also read the statute on an exclusive construction ('' inclusio unius est exclusio alterius''), noting that other

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

prohibiting the sale of weapons referred to "offering ''or exposing for sale''" (emphasis added). The lack of the words ''exposing for sale'' in the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959 suggested that only a true offer would be prohibited by the Act.

Significance

The 1959 Act was almost immediately amended by the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1961 section 1 to add (to the offence) ''or exposes or has in his possession for the purpose of sale or hire'', which remains the law. A similar shopkeeper would today be successfully prosecuted. The principles of offer and acceptance in the case remain good law. Almost identical drafting errors in other statutes were addresses in '' Partridge v Crittenden'' and ''British Car Auctions v Wright''.

References