White V. Corlies & Tift

2308 Words10 Pages
Citation: 46 N.Y. 467, 1871 N.Y. 280 The parties involved in this case are the plaintiff, White, who was a builder whose working place was in Fortieth Street, New York City. The defendants in this case were Corlies and Tift, merchants whose place of work was 32 Day Street, New York. The defendants sent out details for work on an office building to the plaintiff and requested the plaintiff to give a rough estimate of their expected cost. The plaintiff sent the estimated cost of work to the defendant where upon receiving it, the defendant wrote back to the plaintiff asking him to start work at once. The plaintiff upon receiving the note from the defendant did not send back any response but commenced work the next day by buying lumber necessary for completion of the defendants work. A second note was sent by the defendants countermanding the first note but was not forwarded before the plaintiff started work. The lower court decided that it was the plaintiff’s duty to go down to the defendants premises and commence work as a sign of acceptance and that the plaintiff was not obliged to expressly accept the offer by making either a written or verbal communication to the defendant and that his action to buy lumber for the work would suffice as an acceptance. The defendants were seeking an appeal on this ruling arguing that the plaintiff was obliged to communicate his acceptance before commencing work. They also argued that the note instructing the plaintiff to start work was a proposition rather than an agreement and that it should have been accepted by the plaintiff before either party could be bound by a contract. The appellate court found that indeed the trial court judge had made an error and ruled in favour of the defendant. The appellate court ruled in favour of the defendant on the basis that any offer has to be accepted by an appropriate act. The plaintiff had
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