PP 2000/93

You attend an auction, having been given to understand that there is no reserve price on the lot you have your eye on. You start the bidding with a silly price, and find to your delight that you are on your own. The auctioneer withdraws the item from the auction. Have you any recourse against the auctioneer, or can he claim that nothing in the nature of a contract could come into existence unless or until he lets the hammer fall? Well, if anyone got hammered in Barry v Heathcote Ball & Co (Commercial Auctions) Ltd The Times 31 August 2000 (CA) it was the auctioneer. As explained by John Murdoch in With all proper reserve Estates Gazette 14 October 2000, p208, the instrument of his downfall was a collateral contract. According to the court, the contract was formed on the making of the bid; such bid amounting, not only to an offer to buy but also to an acceptance of an implied offer to conduct the auction on the advertised lines. The making of the bid was also held to furnish the necessary consideration. So, if the auctioneer knows your little ways, that gentle tug on the right ear lobe could amount to value in the eyes of the law. Related item: PP 2002/146