Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1983] 1

Case Background for Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1983] 1:

Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (Carbolic) is a manufacturing company and they advertised a product that is said to prevent the user from catching influenza. The event happened during the influenza pandemic in England.

Carbolic included in their advertisement that anyone who uses the product and will still catch influenza will receive £100 reward. More importantly, the advertisement also indicated that Carbolic had deposited the money to the bank for anyone to cash out.

Particularly, the reward can be collected if:

• A person buys the product.
• The person uses the product in accordance with the instructions.
• The person, who carried out the first two steps, still caught influenza. To show the sincerity and legitimacy of the offer, the company deposited £1,000 in an account where the reward will come from. 

 Elizabeth Carlill knew about the offer and immediately followed the steps, and unfortunately, she acquired influenza. She then demanded the reward but the company denied her of this by stating that the contract was not unenforceable.

Case Issue:

The issue of the case was whether or not Carbolic Smoke Balls Co intended the promise to be legally binding.

Case Decision:

The court decided that, from the related instances, the company intended the offer to be legally enforceable, which results in a legally binding contract.

Case Reason/s:

The advertisement stated that there was already a £1,000 deposit for the reward. With this action, the company made it conferrable that the promise has an intention to be legally binding.

The intention was sufficiently precise and that the company had an intention to legally bind themselves regardless if the Carbolic cites that it was merely a puff and not an offer.