Davis and Another v Chadwick & Co [1911] ZAWLD 3 (1 March 1911)

Contract - Formation - Acceptance - Guarantee to be supplied - Time within which guarantee required - Interpretation of Offer.

In September defendants offered to grant to plaintiffs, in consideration of monthly payments, the right to supply certain theatre programmes for one year fron 1st December, provided the plaintiffs supplied "a guarantee of at least three months' advance payment". The plaintiffs on October 10th accepted the offer, but stated that they would pay on the 15th November the amount required to be guaranteed. On October 18th, no guarantee or payment having been made, the defendants withdrew their offer. The plaintiffs thereupon sued for damages for breach of contract. It appeared that in order to be ready to perform the contract suggested a contractor would have had to begin canvassing for advertisements some considerable time before December, and that plaintiffs had begun to do so in September.

Held, that in order to accept the defendants' offer it was necessary for the plaintiffs to agree to supply the said guarantee within such reasonable time as might be necessary for them to obtain it; that the plaintiffs had not so agreed, and that consequently a contract had never been completed.