Myers v. Smith
New York Supreme Court
THIS action was brought on a contract claimed to have been made by letter. The plaintiff was a brewer residing at Ilion, Herkimer county, and the defendant was a maltster, living at Clyde, Wayne county, and having a malt house at Weedsport. The parties lived about one hundred miles apart. On the 10th of June, 1864, the plaintiff addressed the following letter to the defendant: e: Ilion, June-10th, 1864. Mb.
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THIS action was brought on a contract claimed to have been made by letter. The plaintiff was a brewer residing at Ilion, Herkimer county, and the defendant was a maltster, living at Clyde, Wayne county, and having a malt house at Weedsport. The parties lived about one hundred miles apart. On the 10th of June, 1864, the plaintiff addressed the following letter to the defendant: e: Ilion, June-10th, 1864. Mb. Smith : Dear Sir—I understood by Mr. Howe, of Hew York, you were about to ship a boat load of malt; if you did not sell it at Albany you should take it to Hew York. I want to buy about ten…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court, Bacon, J.
The primary, and, indeed, vital question in this case is whether there was a contract between these parties—an agreement upon which their minds met, executed and complete, or whether it was a negotiation inchoate and unperfected until something should intervene and be determined, in order to give it full effect. The counsel for the plaintiff is entirely right in claiming that a proposition made by one party by letter to another party at a distance, containing a specific offer which is unconditionally accepted by the latter, will constitute a valid contract between them.…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Mactier's Administrators v. FrithCourt for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors · 1830
- Clark v. DalesNew York Supreme Court · 1855
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- Barrow Steamship Co. v. Mexican Central Railway Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1892
- Coal Co. v. RichterWest Virginia Supreme Court · 1888
- Olcott v. McClureIndiana Court of Appeals · 1912
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