‘A promise to keep an offer open for a specified period can be withdrawn by the promisor before expiration of the period’
Required:
Explain whether this is a true position of the law in Ghana now (8 marks)
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- It was a common law principle that “a promise to keep an offer open for a specified period could be withdrawn before the expiration of the time”.
- This was especially true, if no consideration was provided by the promisee, for the promise.
- The courts sought to make changes to this principle especially in situations where through some forbearance on the part of the promise, sought to accept the promise.
- But the statement is no longer true in Ghana. Section 8 (I) of the Contract Act, Act (25) 1960 states that “a promise to keep an offer open for acceptance for a specified time shall not be invalid as a contract by reason only of the absence of any consideration therefor”.
- In situations where the promisee may have relied on the offer to keep the offer open and has made efforts to accept the offer, it would not be fair to withdraw the offer or promise midstream only for the reason that no consideration has been offered.