Bowerman v Association of British Travel Agents Ltd
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Hirst,Waite,Hobhouse L JJ |
| Judgment Date | 21 November 1995 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 21 November 1995 |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Hirst, Lord Justice Waite and Lord Justice Hobhouse
Contract - offer - ABTA notice constitutes an offer
There was a direct contractual relationship between a customer of a failed ABTA tour operator and ABTA themselves under their well known scheme of protection against such failure.
The Court of Appeal so held by a majority, Lord Justice Hirst dissenting, in allowing an appeal by Miss Emma Bowerman and Mr Stephen Wallace from the dismissal by Mr Justice Mitchell on March 11, 1994 of their claim for reimbursement of £10 holiday insurance deducted from a claim paid by ABTA in respect of a holiday cancelled through the insolvency of the operator.
Mr Edward Bailey for the appellants; Miss Catharine Otton-Goulder for the defendants.
LORD JUSTICE HIRST said that Miss Bowerman was a pupil who had booked a skiing holiday and Mr Wallace was the teacher who had made the actual booking.
The arrangements had to be cancelled owing to the insolvency of the ABTA tour operator and in making a reimbursement ABTA had deducted the sum of £10 in respect of holiday insurance and that sum formed the subject matter of the appeal, which turned entirely on the construction of a notice which each ABTA tour operator was required to display prominently in its office.
The appellants' case was that that notice constituted a contractual offer to the public at large to protect them financially in the various contingencies there specified and that each customer accepted that offer when he booked his holiday with the relevant ABTA agent.
Strong reliance was placed on Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball CompanyELR ((1893) 1 QB 256), where the Court of Appeal had held that an advertisement by the defendants, who were the proprietors and vendors of a medical preparation, constituted an offer to anybody who accepted it by performing the conditions named in the advertisement.
It was submitted that that was comparable with the ABTA notice and his Lordship accepted that if the words of that notice were truly promissory in character it would be capable of constituting a contractual offer to the public in general.
First, it was essential to give full weight to the main heading to which his Lordship attached great importance, namely: "Notice describing ABTA's scheme of protection against the financial failure of ABTA's members".
That was an accurate...
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Table of Cases
...(2004) 101(30) LSG 29, (2004) 154 NLJ 1050, [2004] All ER (D) 191 (Jun) 6.138 Bowerman v Association of British Travel Agents Limited [1996] CLC 451, (1995) 145 NLJ Rep 1815, (1995) The Times , 24 November, CA; [1995] Tr LR 246, QBD 6.8 Brannan v Airtours Plc [1999] EWCA Civ 588, [1999] TLR......