Lucy v. Zehmer

Facts

On December 20, 1952, the defendant produced a written agreement that agreed to sell his farm to the defendant for $50,000. The plaintiff testified that he had known the defendant for fifteen or twenty years and had been aware of the farm for ten years. Several years ago, he had offered $20,000 for the farm, which the defendant accepted at first but later backed out of. The two parties were talking at a bar, when the plaintiff offered $50,000 for the farm and the defendant accepted. The defendant then wrote up an agreement, which was signed by the plaintiff and his wife. The plaintiff then offered $5, but the defendant refused, indicating that both parties had already signed the agreement and the payment was unnecessary. The parties were drinking, but the plaintiff claims that he was not intoxicated and did not believe the defendant to be either. When the plaintiff went to enforce the written agreement, the defendant claimed that he never intended to sell and that the deal was not enforceable. The defendant claims that he was visibly intoxicated and that he made the written agreement as a joke, especially given that he had declined to sell the farm to the plaintiff several times in the past.