Sumaila wants to sell his house at Bamahu and advertises it in the local newspaper called Sunnah Times for GHC 200,000.00 he gave his mobile number out for interested persons to contact him. Mutalla sees the advertisement and calls Sumaila and makes a

To address the issues raised concerning the scenario involving Sumaila, Mutalla, and the sale of the house, let’s analyze each point in detail: ### 1) Whether or not Sumaila's advertisement in the newspaper amounts to an offer or an invitation to treat? An advertisement in a newspaper is generally considered an **invitation to treat** rather than a binding offer. This means that it is an invitation for potential buyers to make offers to purchase the item (in this case, the house). Sumaila's advertisement stating that he wants to sell his house for GHC 200,000.00 invites interested parties (like Mutalla) to submit their offers. Therefore, Sumaila's advertisement would not amount to a legal offer but is rather an invitation for others to make an offer. ### 2) Whether or not Sumaila could have sold the house to Sadia without waiting for the two weeks’ grace period to elapse? Since Sumaila's letter to Mutalla was indeed an offer to sell the house at GHC 180,000.00, it created a scenario where Mutalla was given time to accept or reject the offer. However, until Mutalla accepted the offer, Sumaila remained free to withdraw his offer and sell to someone else. The two-week period was merely a consideration period for Mutalla to think about the offer, and it did not impose a legal obligation on Sumaila to wait until the end of that period to sell the house. Thus, Sumaila could legally sell the house to Honourable Sadia Alhassan before the two weeks elapsed, as the offer was still pending acceptance and could have been retracted by Sumaila at any time prior to Mutalla's acceptance. ### 3) Whether or not there was a valid acceptance after Mutalla posted the letter to the registered address of Sumaila? In contract law, the **postal rule** states that acceptance of an offer is effective when it is communicated to the offeror (in this case, Sumaila) through the postal service. This means that once Mutalla posted his letter accepting the offer, acceptance was deemed effective at the moment of posting, assuming it was correctly addressed and properly dispatched. However, Sumaila’s subsequent letter indicates he had already sold the house to another party before Mutalla's acceptance was actually received by him. Due to this prior sale, the acceptance that Mutalla believed he made could not create a binding contract since the offer was no longer available when he attempted to accept it. ### Conclusion - Sumaila's advertisement was an invitation to treat, not an offer. - He was legally free to sell the house to another party (Sadia) before the two weeks were up. - Mutalla's acceptance was valid in terms of the postal rule, but it was ineffective because the offer had already been revoked by the sale to Sadia before the acceptance was received. In summary, Mutalla's position is unfortunately weakened due to Sumaila's legal rights regarding the sale of the house.