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'''Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company''' [1893] 1 QB 256 is one of the most famous leading cases in English law that helped establish the requirements for the formation of a contract.

Contents

Background

Ruling

Later influence

External links

See also

Background

The Carbolic Smoke Ball Company made a product called a smoke ball that it claimed could protect the user from contracting influenza. The smoke ball was a rubber ball with a tube attached. It was filled with Carbolic acid (Phenol). The tube was then inserted into the user's nose. It was squeezed at the bottom to release the vapours into the nose of the user. This would cause the nose to run, and hopefully flush out the cold. In fact the inflammation caused by the device would have probably increased susceptibility to catching influenza.
The Company published advertisements claiming that it would pay £100 to anyone who got sick with influenza after using its product according to the instructions set out in the advertisement.
Specifically, they stated:
Mrs Carlill, relying on the promises made in the advertisement, bought one of the balls and used it in the manner specified, yet still managed to contract influenza.

Ruling

The Carbolic Company claimed that there was no enforceable contract between it and the user of the smoke ball on the grounds that there was no ''acceptance'' of its offer, because Mrs Carlill had never notified the Company that she accepted its offer, or ''consideration,'' since the Company did not receive any benefit from a purchaser's use of the product once the sale had been completed. The court rejected both arguments, ruling that the advertisement was an offer of a unilateral contract between the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company and anyone who satisfies the conditions set out in the advertisement. Once Mrs Carlill had satisfied the conditions she was entitled to enforcement of the contract; the notification of performance of the conditions formed part of the acceptance. Furthermore, weight was placed on the £1000 bank deposit that claimed to 'show their sincerity in the matter' in showing that the advertisement was not just a puff.
As to consideration, it was held that the act itself was a certain effort required from the promisee and this effort qualified as consideration for the promise to pay her the reward.

Later influence

The case was quoted extensively in the famous "Pepsi Points case", ''Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc.'', 88 F.Supp.2d 116 (1996), wherein presiding Judge Kimba Wood wrote:
:Long a staple of law school curricula, ''Carbolic Smoke Ball'' owes its fame not merely to "the comic and slightly mysterious object involved"... but also to its role in developing the law of unilateral offers.

External links

★ Full Law Report from Justis

★ Carbolic Smoke Ball Website

See also

★ Contract

★ Offer and acceptance

★ Invitation to treat

★ Partridge v. Crittenden