Court case(1862) 11 CB (NS) 869

Felthouse wrote to his nephew offering to buy his horse and added: 'If I hear no more about him, I consider the horse mine at 30 pounds 15s.' The nephew did not reply but told the auctioneer, Bindley, to keep the horse out of a sale. Bindley sold it by mistake and Felthouse sued him in conversion.

The court held that there was no contract. The nephew may have intended to sell, but he had never communicated his acceptance to his uncle, and the uncle could not impose a contract by saying that silence would be treated as consent.