Carrie offered to sell a set of legal encyclopedias to Antonio for $300. 00. Antonio said that he would think about her offer and let her know his decision the next day. Norvel, who overheard the conversation between Carrie and Antonio, said to Carrie, “I accept your offer.. ” Carrie gave Norvel the books. The next day, Antonio, who had no idea that Carrie had already sold the books to Norvel, told Carrie that he accepted her offer. Is Carrie obligated to sell the encyclopedias to Norvel? Why or why not? Has Carrie breached a valid contract with Antonio?
Explain. In this case Carrie made an offer to Antonio, and only Antonio. Antonio had chosen to think about it and told Carrie that he would let her know his decision the next day. From what I gathered from our text, Carrie had contract with Antonio, because she had made an offer to him. An offer in our text is described as a promise given to someone or some kind of commitment of an act for something in the future.
There are three elements to an offer “there must be a serious, objective intention by the offeror, the terms of the offer must be reasonably certain, or definite, so that the parties and the 3 Contract of Encyclopedias court can ascertain the terms of the contract. The offer must be communicated to the offeree. ” (Miller & Jentz) I would say that Carrie made an offer to Antonio and therefore they have a verbal contract until Antonio denies the offer. When Carrie sold the encyclopedias to Norvel I believe she was breaching a valid contract that she had with Antonio.
Now some might say that she did not breach a contract; however, it says that “the offeror can revoke the offer only if the tell the offeree before they accept it. ”(Miller & Jentz) Antonio had not accepted it but had not denied it yet and Carrie did not revoke the offer from Antonio. Norvel being the third party in this scenario accepted the offer; however, he had no grounds to accept this offer as it was not an offer that was made to him. “Only the person who the offer is made to can accept it. ”
(Miller & Jentz) In my opinion Carrie is not obligated to sell the encyclopedias to Norvel because, she did not offer it to him. Because of this reason Carrie should have never sold the encyclopedias to Norvel knowing that Antonio was still deciding, and he had that right to decide it. In my opinion I would say that Carrie would owe Antonio the encyclopedias, as he was the person she made the offer to originally. 4 Contract of Encyclopedias References Miller, R. L. , & Jentz, G. A. (2010). Fundamentals of Business Law: Summarized Cases Eighth Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.