Question

I.R.A.C. Exercise

Olsen v. Johnston: Judy Olsen, Kristy Johnston, and their mother, Joyce Johnston, owned 78 acres of land on Eagle Creek in Montana. When Joyce died, she left her interest in the property to Kristy. Kristy wrote to Judy, offering to buy Judy’s share or to sell her own share to Jury. The letter said to “please respond to Bruce Townsend.” In a letter to Kristy, not Bruce, Judy accepted Kristy’s offer to sell her share. By that time, however, Kristy had made the same offer to sell her share to their brother Dave, and Dave had accepted. When Kristy told Judy that she was selling to Dave, Judy filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Kristy, alleging they had a valid contract between the two of them. Kristy argued that she did never had a valid agreement with Judy. Who would likely win the case and why?

NOTE: This question is from LAW 001 Business Law I

Answer 1

Issue- Is there a valid contract between Kristy and Judy

Rule= For a contract to be valid, it must have all the elements of the valid contract that is an offer, acceptance, legality of the contract, consideration

Analysis= Kristy has offered to Judy to either buy her portion of the land or to sell her the land belonging to Judy and the acceptance of the offer has to be sent to Bruce Townsend. In place, Judy responded to Kristy rather than writing to Bruce which is a violation of the offer terms. Therefore when Judy sent the acceptance directly to Kristy, she violated the terms of the offers and thus there was not a valid acceptance.

Conclusion= Looking at the facts of the case, it is clear that acceptance of the offer by Judy was not valid as she did not write to Bruce as mentioned in the offer and thus there was no valid contract between Judy and Kristy and thus the decision will be against Judy