Business Law Foundation: Analyzing a Scenario Using the Business Law ILAC Method

Question

Utilizing The Business Law Ilac Method, Read And Analyze The Following Scenario.

Ming owned a boat that was highly admired by Lee. On the 20th of April, she wrote a letter to Lee offering to sell the boat to her for a price of $10,000. Ming received the letter the very next day, on receipt of which she immediately contacted Ming over the phone to disclose her admiration for the boat and asked to ask her to hold the boat for her for a week, considering she needed time to think about it, to which Ming agreed. Before the expiration of the week, Lee contacted Ming again expressing her acceptance to Ming’s offer and told her that she would bring her payment for the boat the very next day. Ming however explained that she had sold the boat to Cheery, earlier that day. This news got Lee infuriated. She demanded for Ming to procure the boat from Cherry and subsequently sell it to her.

Does there exist between Ming and Lee, any enforceable contract? Please shed light on the scenario utilizing the principles of Contract Law, Business Law Ilac Method, and relevant case studies.

Answer

Issue: The question that needs to be clarified in this situation is whether Ming and Lee have an enforceable contract based on her pledge to hold the boat for Lee, keeping in mind the principles of business law as applied by the Ilac Method. The following are the pertinent facts that must be taken into account in this case.

• In a letter that Lee received the following day, Ming made Lee an offer by stating that she would sell her yacht to Lee for the sum of $10,000.

Ming reached out to Ming in response to the letter very quickly, asking for a week to evaluate Ming's offer, to which Ming consented.

• Before the allotted time had passed, Lee phoned Ming with the intention of accepting her offer, but she was informed that Cherry had already purchased the item in question.

• After regaining the boat from Cherry, Lee insisted that Ming sell it to her because she had already asked him to hold it for her and had his acceptance of her request.

In these situations, the Business Law Ilac Method is quite apparent. According to contract law, any assurance that an offer will remain open for a specific period of time must be accompanied by a consideration that is separate from the offer's consideration. In essence, there would be two independent contracts: one for the item in issue and another to maintain the offer for the first contract's availability and openness for a set period of time. These contracts are designed to provide someone the opportunity to conduct any necessary research about the thing being offered in the main contract before the person to whom the offer has been made enters into the main contract. This is a technique to ensure that, if there are costs associated with looking into the object in question and, if the person looking into it stands to gain from such inquiries, they will be covered.