Warning
Info
- - tl;dr
- - ICRA
- - Facts & Holding
- - DeepDive
0 0
Oregon Supreme Court - 275 P. 684, 129 Or. 427, 275 Pac. 684
Tags: Contracts, Acceptance, Offer
tl;dr:
A grain dealer solicited business from a seed company, but then refused to sell to them. The court ruled that there was no contract because the grain dealer’s solicitation was not an offer.Video Summary
Case Summary
In Courteen Seed Co. v. Abraham (1929), the Oregon Supreme Court considered a case about a contract for selling clover seed.
Abraham, a grain dealer, sent a telegram on October 8, 1927 to Courteen Seed Co., a wholesale seed business. The telegram read, “I am asking 23 cents per pound for the car of red clover seed from which your sample was taken,” referring to a seed sample that Abraham sent to Courteen weeks prior. The telegram later mentioned that Abraham had “an offer 22 ¾ per pound” from another customer. Courteen Seed Co. responded, “Telegram received. We accept your offer.” However, Abraham contracted to sell the seed to others and refused to complete the sale to Courteen.
Courteen brought suit for $2,750 in damages. Abraham said his telegram was not intended to be an offer and moved for a nonsuit. The trial court ruled for Courteen, and Abraham appealed.
The main question was whether the defendant's telegram to the plaintiff was an offer or just an invitation to discuss a deal. The appealed court decided it was an invitation to negotiate, not an offer. They said the telegram did not show a clear intention to sell but only asked for a price per pound. Also, it did not show the defendant was ready to be bound by the plaintiff's acceptance but only mentioned another offer from someone else.
This case highlights the concept of offer and acceptance, a key part of contract law. Offers must be clearly defined and certain, while acceptances must clearly and unconditionally agree to the offer's terms. Courts look at the objective meaning, intention, context, and customs when interpreting communications between parties. They also differentiate offers from invitations to negotiate, which do not create legal obligations.
DeepDiveHighlight a legal term to see the definition
The defendant argues that the court erred in denying their motion for nonsuit as there is no evidence of a binding offer to sell clover seed to the plaintiff. The court must determine if the defendant made a valid offer and intended to enter into a contract upon the plaintiff's acceptance. The plaintiff relies on a telegram from the defendant offering to sell the seed at 23 cents per pound, and the plaintiff's acceptance of the offer. However, the court cannot conclude that the defendant's telegram constituted an express offer to sell as it only stated the price the defendant was asking for the clover seed. The court must consider the context in which the words were used. The defendant had sent samples of clover seed to various people in September 1927. The court cites eminent authority that information or invitation to negotiate does not constitute an offer.
LSD+ Case Briefs
Features
- DeepDive for detailed case analysis
- Over 50,000 existing case briefs
- Instant briefs for another 6,000,000 cases
- Highlight dictionary for legal term definitions
- Social learning with chat and high points
Over 50,000 Cases Briefed
LSD+ gives you access to over 50,000 case briefs, more than anyone else. Be the first to email us the website of a case brief product that offers you more case briefs and we'll give you a free year of LSD+.
14-Day Free Trial
Unlimited access. Read as much content as you want during your trial with no device limitations. Cancel any time during your trial and keep access for the full 14 days.
Integrated Legal Dictionary
Lawyers and judges love to use big words. And Latin, for some reason.
Highlight a legal term in LSD Briefs and get an instant, plain English definition. Try highlighting contract or specific performance. No need to search or read through a list of definitions, simply highlight the words you don’t know and our LSDefine integration will instantly give you a definition to any of over 30,000 legal terms.
DeepDive
DeepDive allows you to explore legal cases like never before. DeepDive offers multiple levels of case summaries, which empowers you to quickly and easily find the information you need to stay on top of readings. Easily navigate through summary levels and click on any text to get more detail, all the way down to the original legal case text.
Brief anything. Instantly.
Our proprietary state-of-the-art system can instantly brief over 6,000,000 US cases. That means we can probably brief that case that your professor assigned last night when she sent you a poorly scanned pdf and told you to read every third paragraph. Or maybe she uploaded it to Canvas and didn’t really tell you to read it, but you know you probably should. Tenure does wild things to good people.
Social Learning with Chat and High Points
Study groups are a great way to learn and explore a case. LSD has chat rooms for each case to let you ask questions across the community and hear what other students struggled with and how they put it all together. Learn the key points of every case from other LSD+ users and share your knowledge with LSD High Points.
Real-Time Brief Feedback
Don’t settle for mistakes in briefs that have been there for 10 years and never fixed. Find an issue or something missing from a brief? Down vote and we will make improvements. All of our case brief editors graduated from from T14 law schools.