Book1 Chapter03 Title03

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK I. General Principles.

Chapter III. Juristic Acts.

Title III. Contract.

Section 145.

• If a person offers to another the making of a contract he is bound by the offer, unless he has excluded this obligation.

Section 146.

• An offer ceases to be binding if it is declined to the offerer, or if it is not accepted in his favour in due time according to 147 to 149.

Section 147.

• [I] An offer made to a person who is present may be accepted only there and then. This applies also to an offer made by one person to another on the telephone.
• [II] An offer made to a person who is not present may be accepted only before the moment when the offerer may expect to receive an answer under ordinary circumstances.

Section 148.

• If the offerer has fixed a period of time for acceptance of the offer, the acceptance may take place only within that period.

Section 149.

• If an acceptance arrives out of time, though it has been transmitted to the offerer in such manner that it would have arrived in due time with ordinary forwarding, and the offerer must have recognised this, on receipt of the acceptance he shall without delay notify the acceptor of the delay, unless this has already been done. If he delay so to notify him the acceptance is deemed not to have been out of time.

Section 150.

• [I] If the acceptance of an offer arrives out of time it is deemed to be a new offer.
• [II] An acceptance with amplifications, limitations, or other alterations is deemed to be a refusal coupled with a new offer.

Section 151.

• A contract is concluded by the acceptance of an offer, although the acceptance is not communicated to the proposer, if such a communication is not to be expected according to ordinary usage, or if the offerer has waived it. The moment at which the offer ceases to be binding is determined according to the intention of the offerer to be inferred from the offer or the circumstances.

Section 152.

• If a contract is judicially or notarially authenticated without both parties being simultaneously present, the contract is, unless otherwise provided, concluded upon authentication of the acceptance as provided for in 128. The provision of 151, sentence 2, applies.

Section 153.

• The conclusion of a contract is not prevented by the fact that the offerer dies or becomes incapable of disposing before acceptance, unless a contrary intention of the offerer is to be inferred.

Section 154.

• [I] So long as the parties have not agreed upon all points of a contract upon which, according to the declaration of even one party, agreement is essential, the contract is, in case of doubt, not concluded. An understanding concerning particular points is not binding, even if they have been noted down.
• [II] If authentication of the contemplated contract has been agreed upon, in case of doubt the contract is not concluded until the authentication has taken place.

Section 155.

• If the parties to a contract which they regard as concluded have in fact not agreed upon one point concerning which an agreement should have been arrived at, that which is agreed upon is valid if it is to be inferred that the contract would have been concluded even without a settlement of this point.

Section 156.

• At an auction a contract is not concluded until the hammer falls. A bid ceases to be binding if a higher bid is made, or the auction is closed before the hammer falls.

Section 157.

• Contracts shall be interpreted according to the requirements of good faith, ordinary usage being taken into consideration.