Powell vs. Lee, 1908

• Here Mr. Powell is referred to as the plaintiff. He was actually one of the candidates appear to be in the position of headmaster of a school. 
• The manager at that time referred his candidature to the appointing authority, and the appointing authority, in return, release a resolution which sort of appointing him to the said position.
• At this point, there was no formal acceptance directly to him, and these were only internal dealings at that time. One board member heard the discussion from a distance in which the other board members were discussing that they would finally appoint him as the headmaster of the school. 
• He then proceeded to inform Powell of the same. After getting the intimation, Powell was quite happy that he was being appointed as the headmaster, but later on, the members of the board cancelled his resolution of being appointed as the headmaster, and because of this decision, Powell went on to file a suit for breach of contract against the managers.

1. Whether there was a breach of contract done by the parties?

ARGUMENTS:-

Plaintiff’s Arguments:

1. The plaintiff asserted that an acceptance of an offer must be properly communicated in order to be considered legitimate. 
2. Furthermore, the offeree, in his authorised capacity, or a representative of his choosing, should carry out this contact. 
3. In this case, the plaintiff argued that the school board member who allegedly accepted the offer lacked the necessary authority.
4. The plaintiff said that since there was no legal acceptance of the offer, there was no formation of a contract between the plaintiff and the school board.

Defendant’s Arguments:

1. The key point is that Mr. Powell never formally conveyed the acceptance. 
2. Since Mr. Powell was never formally informed of acceptance, he shouldn’t be pursuing a breach of contract lawsuit.
3. The board members notified Mr. Powell that his application had been declined. The only and final conclusion communicated to him was this refusal, and it came from a duly appointed representative. 
4. The opening for the headmaster’s position was an invitation to offer in the terms of the Indian Contract Act.
5. Mr. Powell effectively offered to become the headmaster when he applied. The board of members had the authority to accept or reject the offer, and they chose to do so. This was within their legal rights.

JUDGMENT:-

• The Bench heard the parties, viewed the evidence and came to the conclusion that there was no breach of contract, as there was no contract from the side of the school or the committee or the management. 
• The plaintiff was informed about the alleged selection that was under discussion when the resolution was submitted.  The information was furnished to him by a member of the committee, and not someone representing the committee. The person of the committee had no authority to do so, nor did he have the consent to inform the plaintiff about something that was not even confirmed yet.
• There was a resolution that was put forth to the Board. However, there was no form of official confirmation provided to the plaintiff which spoke about his selection as the headmaster of the school. The only form of official information the plaintiff received was from the management that said that the plaintiff was not selected for the position he applied for. 
• Since there was no contract, only an offer put forward by the plaintiff, there was no breach of the said contract. The status of the contract stood at the offer of the job being rejected by the school.

• “Acceptance subject to the contract is no acceptance.” The main thing to note here is that the acceptance was never formally conveyed to Mr. Powell. So technically, he shouldn’t be engaging in a suit of breach of contract as, to the law, he was never conveyed anything.
• When he was conveyed the final decision by the members of the board, it was a rejection. This decision was the only and final decision as it was conveyed to him by a formally authorised person in charge of doing the same.
• If we take this case in context to the Indian Contract Act, we will see that the opening to the post of headmaster was only an invitation to offer and when Mr. Powell applied for the same, he basically intimated his offer to be in place of the headmaster.
• It was up to the board of members to either accept the offer and convey their acceptance to him or reject the offer, which they actually did. So there is nothing wrong, legally, with this whole situation, and the judgment of the court is, in fact, in the interest of all the parties involved.