SAMPLE ANSWER

QUESTION

Mimi went into a supermarket to buy groceries. After filling the trolley with assorted
goods, she pushed it to the payment counter. There was a long queue. At that
moment, she received a call from her daughter reminding her not to miss a medical
appointment again. Mimi decided to walk out and quietly left the trolley behind. At the
exit she was stopped by a sale supervisor on duty who asked her to pay for the
groceries before leaving. Mimi refused as she was in a hurry. Advise the parties on
their rights according to the law of contract.

ANSWER

The issue in the question is whether Mimi needs to pay for the groceries.

To answer this issue, we first need to establish whether there is a contract

between the parties. Section 2(h) of the Contracts Act provides that a contract is an
agreement which is legally binding between the parties. There are few conditions that
must be fulfilled before an agreement forms a contract. The elements in a valid
contract are offer, acceptance, intention to create legal relation, consideration,
certainty, legal capacity, and free consent.

An offer or proposal is necessary for the formation of an agreement. Sec 2 (a)

of the Contracts Act provides that proposal is made when one signifies to another his
willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the
assent of that other. This offer is made by the the offeror, and has to be accepted by
the offeree to form a contract. In the case of Affin Credit v Yap Yuen Fui, it was held
that the lack of offer in the hire-purchase agreement had rendered the agreement
void ab initio.

A proposal must be communicated to the acceptor before it can be accepted.

Sec 4(1) of the Contracts Act provides that the communication of offer is complete
when it comes to the knowledge of the person to whom it is made. A proposal is said
to have been communicated only if the party who accepts it knew about the proposal.

However, an offer must be distinguished from an invitation to treat. An

invitation to treat is not a proposal, but a sort of preliminary communication
which passes between the parties at the stage of negotiation. Invitation to treat
is not yet a proposal. It is an offer to consider an offer. The person who accepts the
invitation to treat is actually the person making the proposal. When the person who is
making the invitation to treat accepts the proposal, there will be an agreement. On
the other hand, an offer, when accepted, constitutes a contract.

Examples of invitation to treat would include price list or catalogues, display of

goods with price tags in a supermarket, or an auction. In the case of Pharmaceutical
Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemist Ltd, the defendant was charged under
the Pharmacy and Poison Act 1933 UK which provides that it was unlawful to sell
certain poison unless such sale was supervised by a registered pharmacist. The
plaintiff claimed that the sale was unlawful since no pharmacist was seen. The issue
in the case was whether the display of goods on the shelves constituted an offer? It
was held by the court that the display of goods was merely an invitation to treat. A
proposal to buy was made when the customer placed the article in the basket.
Acceptance of this sale is only made when the cashier receives the money from the
customer. In this case, there was a registered pharmacist at the cashier. Therefore,
the defendant was not liable as the contract only happened at the cashier counter,
and there was registered pharmacist to monitor the sale.

In another case of Majumder v A-G of Sarawak, it was held that an

advertisement in the newspaper for the post of doctor was just an Invitation to treat.

To apply the laws to the question, when Mimi went into the supermarket, there
would be shelves displaying the goods. Can this display of goods be considered as
an offer? By virtue of the laws stated above, the display of the goods only amount to
an invitation to treat. A contract will only happen if Mimi made an offer to buy the
goods at the cashier, and the cashier accepts Mimis offer. In the question, after filling
the trolley with assorted goods, Mimi pushed it to the payment counter. She later
received a call from her daughter reminding her not to miss a medical appointment
again. Mimi decided to walk out and quietly left the trolley behind. Therefore, there is
no formation of contract in the question, as the goods were left in the trolley.
However, at the exit, she was stopped by a sale supervisor on duty who asked her to
pay for the groceries before leaving. Applying the above laws to the present fact, she
is under no obligation to pay for the goods.

In conclusion, there is no contract in the question. There was just invitation to

treat, and as such Mimi is right when she refused to pay for the goods as she is
under no obligation to pay.