Contracts Keyed to Murphy
Lonergan v. Scolnick
ProfessorMelissa A. Hale
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
Defendant placed an ad in paper selling “Joshua Tree vic. 40 acres, * * * need cash, will sacrifice.” Plaintiff wrote a letter of inquiry. Defendant sent a letter marked clearly as a form letter to plaintiff on March 26th giving description of property and stating his rock bottom price of $2,500. On April 7th, Plaintiff responded asking for a legal description of the property (to be sure he had found it) and asked if a certain bank would be an acceptable escrow agent “should I desire to purchase the land.” Defendant responded on April 8th saying that from Plaintiff’s description of the property Plaintiff had found the land and that the bank was acceptable escrow agent. The response ended with “If you are really interested, you will have to decide fast, as I expect to have a buyer in the next week or so.” On April 12th, Defendant sold the property to a third party for $2,500. Plaintiff received the Defendant’s April 8th correspondence on April 14th (after property had already been sold). On April 15th, Plaintiff responded to Defendant stating he would proceed with putting $2,500 in escrow.
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