Principle If a contract is made by post between two persons living in two different cities then the ...........

Indian Contract Act (ICA)1872 Discharge and Breach of Contract

Principle: If a contract is made by post between two persons living in two different cities, then the contract is said to be complete as soon as the letter of acceptance is properly posted, and the place of completion of the contract is that city where acceptance is posted. It is worth mentioning here that in every contract there is always an offer from one party and the acceptance of the offer from the other party.

Facts: Sani, a resident of Patna, gives an offer by post to sell his house for Rs. 25 lacs to Hani, a resident of Allahabad. This offer letter is posted on 1st January 2013 from Patna and reaches Allahabad on 7th January 2013. Hani accepts this offer and posts the letter of acceptance on 8th January 2013 from Allahabad which reaches Patna on 16th January 2013. But Sani presuming that Hani is not interested in accepting his offer, sells his house to Gani at same price on 15th of January, 2013. Hani files a suit against Sani for the breach of contract in the competent court of Allahabad. Whether Hani will succeed?

Hani can not succeed as Sani can not be compelled by law to wait for the answer from Hani for an indefinite period of time.

Hani can not succeed as he could use some other effective and speedy mode for communicating his acceptance in minimum possible time

Hani can succeed as he properly posted the letter of acceptance and the delay was beyond his control

Hani can succeed as contract became complete in the eyes of law on the date of posting the letter of acceptance

Explanation:

As per the principle, acceptance is complete when the letter of acceptance is properly posted and in the present scenario, this was done before Sani sold his house to Gani. The principle states the English postal rule. The contract was complete on the day of posting the letter and the place of posting the letter. Hence option D would be the correct answer.