Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Contract formation, Package Travel Regulations 1992 duties, significant changes, foreseeability and ADR warning in a failed Arctic cruise—Sherman v Reader Offers Ltd (Court of Appeal, England and Wales)

Published on: 05 June 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Commercial expert

Legal News

Article summary

Sherman v Reader Offers Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 412

What are the practical implications of this case?

This judgment delivers detailed guidance on:

pinpointing the exact time and date on which a binding contract was concluded between the parties, and
proportionality

Commercial advisers should avoid partisan, selective readings when interpreting contractual material. Here, the language used during the telephone discussions, coupled with the paperwork sent by the defendant, aligned with the claimant’s case that the contract was formed on the later date. The Court of Appeal further rejected the lower courts’ reliance on the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 (the 1992 Regulations), SI 1992/3288, for determining the point of formation. Those Regulations do not supplant the classical law of formation, which obliges the court to analyse what the parties said and did in order to identify the stage at which, as communicated to each other, they intended to enter into a mutually binding contract. Finally, the court issued a strict warning about the parties’ litigious approach to the dispute, criticising the manner in which the case was pursued and emphasising the need for balance and proportionality in advancing such arguments...

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