Brinkibon Ltd v Stahag Stahl [1983] 2 AC 34 is a leading decision of the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 on the formation of a contract using telecommunication. The Lords largely accepted the earlier leading decision of Entores v Miles Far East Co. [1955] 2 QB 327 on acceptance via telex

Telex

Telex may refer to:* Telex , , a communications network** Teleprinter, the device used on the above network* Telex , a Belgian pop group...

.

Facts

Brinkibon was a London company that purchased steel from Stahag, a seller based in Austria. Brinkibon sent their acceptance to a Stahag offer by Telex to Vienna. Brinkibon later wanted to issue a writ

Writ

In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...

 against Stahag and applied to serve an out of jurisdiction party. They would only be able to do so if the contract had been formed in England.

The question at issue was where the contract was formed.

Judgment

The Judges decided that the contract was formed in Vienna. They accepted the principle in Entores v Miles Far East Co where in the case of instantaneous communication, which included telex, the formation generally occurs in the place where the acceptance is received.

Lord Wilberforce, however, did not see the rule as applying in all circumstances: