98 THE LAW AFFECTING ENGINEERS 



The law provides that an offer may be retracted at any 

 time before it is accepted. So where the defendant offered 

 to purchase a house from the plaintiff, and to give him six 

 weeks within which to give a definite answer, it was decided 

 that the offer might be retracted at any time before the 

 expiration of the period. So in our supposititious case, B. 

 might at any time before acceptance withdraw his tender. 

 What, then, is the date of acceptance ? Here we come to one 

 of those nice distinctions which are a delight to the legal 

 mind, and a source of dismay to men of business. An offer 

 (i.e., for our present purpose a tender) remains open until 

 the employer has actually received notice of its retractation ; 

 whereas the acceptance of an offer is deemed to be received 

 as soon as it is posted. In a well-known case where the 

 defendant wrote and posted an offer (which naturally indicates 

 that the acceptance may be communicated in the same way) 

 and the plaintiff wrote accepting it, and posted the acceptance, 

 and in the meantime the defendant had written withdrawing 

 his offer, but the letter of withdrawal had not been received 

 by the plaintiff at the time of posting his acceptance, it was 

 held that there was a complete contract. (Henthorn v. Fraser, 

 1892, 2 Ch. 27.) 



The result of the cases on this point is that the withdrawal 

 of a tender only takes effect when it reaches the person 

 inviting the tender, while an acceptance takes effect from 

 the moment when the letter of acceptance is posted. 



In the more recent case of Islington Union v. Brentnall and 

 Cleland, 71 J. P. 407, the defendants, in answer to advertise- 

 ments of the plaintiffs, tendered for a supply of coal for a 

 period of one year, and the plaintiffs duly accepted the tender 

 in the form prescribed by the Local Government Board. On 

 hearing of the acceptance the defendants withdrew their 

 tender, on the ground that the price stated therein was so 

 stated by mistake. The plaintiffs bought coal elsewhere at 

 a higher price, and sued the defendants for the difference. 

 It was decided that the tender and acceptance, in the form 

 prescribed by the Local Government Board, constituted a 

 complete contract ; that the defendants were not entitled to 

 withdraw their tender after such acceptance ; and that, in the 

 absence of evidence of mala fides, the plaintiffs were entitled 

 to hold the defendants to the terms of such contract. 



Where, however, those who advertise for tenders make it 



