On March 1, Vance, a Boston entertainment broker, writes to Patty, an opera singer, and offers her a job singing the lead in La Traviata, starting July 1. The letter provides: "any acceptance must be received by me by April 1." Patty writes a letter accepting the offer, which she places in the mail on March 15. The letter is lost in the postal system and never delivered. Not hearing from Patty, Vance hires Heidi to sing the lead. Patty shows up in Boston on July 1. Is there a contract between Vance and Patty?

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11 February, 09:47

On March 1, Vance, a Boston entertainment broker, writes to Patty, an opera singer, and offers her a job singing the lead in La Traviata, starting July 1. The letter provides: "any acceptance must be received by me by April 1." Patty writes a letter accepting the offer, which she places in the mail on March 15. The letter is lost in the postal system and never delivered. Not hearing from Patty, Vance hires Heidi to sing the lead. Patty shows up in Boston on July 1. Is there a contract between Vance and Patty?

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Jillian Thornton · Answer 1

There is no contract since Patty's acceptance was never received by Vance.

Explanation:

Without an acceptance, there is no contract. There is even a postal acceptance rule that states that the date of the acceptance is the same date as the mail was sent. This is prevent any issues due to late mail, for example if the mail had arrived April 5th instead of 1st, the acceptance would be valid because it was mailed before April 1st. The problem here is that the acceptance never arrived, therefore it is not valid, so there is no contract.