Illusory Promise

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                       MID-TERM EXAMINATION
                           December 2006
              Santa Barbara/Ventura Colleges of Law
                     Instructor: Craig Smith

                           QUESTION 1

Moe was a collector of exotic cars. One day he saw an ad in the
classified section of the paper for a 1999 Spitfire, a high
performance, limited edition automobile. The price listed in the
ad was $25,000.00. He called the number in the ad and spoke with
the seller of the car, Curly. He arranged to meet Curly to
inspect the car and to test drive it. He liked it and stated to
Curly, “$25,000.00 is a fair price, however, would you be
willing to take $22,500.00 for it?” Curly thought about it for a
minute and then said “as long as you pay me in cash within 48
hours.” Moe said “deal” and the two shook hands on it. That
night Moe went home and wrote the following letter to Curly
“Thanks for agreeing to sell me your Spitfire for $22,000.00, as
agreed earlier today, I will have the money in cash for you
before the deadline expires. (Signed) Moe.”

Curly received the letter the next day and read it. He
immediately noticed the discrepancy between the agreed price
$22,500.00 and the price in Moe’s letter. Curly thought that Moe
was trying to chisel him on the price and was furious. Without
further communication he failed to appear to receive the
$22,500.00 in cash and refused to sell the car to Moe unless he
pays the original asking price of $25,000.

1. Moe decides to sue Curly for failing to sell the car as
promised for $22,500.00. In the lawsuit for breach of contract
who will prevail and why?

2. Assume that there is an enforceable contract, what damages or
remedies would Moe be entitled to?
                           QUESTION 2

As a fundraiser for charity, the Sesame Rug Rats Foundation
staged the following contest. For $100 per ticket, they sold
tickets for a drawing to be held. The grand prize was a house
valued at $1 million. To get around state laws that prohibit
lotteries, one of the rules of the contest was that anyone who
asked for one could receive one of the tickets for the drawing
without paying any money.

Bert asked for and received one of the tickets without paying
for it. On the back of the ticket in 6-point type, the following
was written: “No prize will be awarded unless at least 15,000
tickets are distributed. In the event of a dispute regarding the
contest rules, ticket holder agrees submit to binding
arbitration.” Although Bert glanced at the back of the ticket,
he did not bother to read what was written on the back.

The day after the drawing was held, Bert went out to buy the
local newspaper to find out the results of the contest. In a
news article that appeared, Bert read that he was the winner.
However, although it appeared in the press release from the
Foundation, the newspaper article omitted the fact that the
house would not be awarded because the minimum number of tickets
were not sold.

Bert was elated when he read the article. All he could think of
was moving into his new dream home. He immediately gave up his
rent-controlled apartment and spent $10,000 at Ikea on new
furniture for the house.

When Bert showed up at the Foundation’s office to claim his
prize he was told that although he was the holder of the winning
ticket, the prize would not be awarded and cited the failure to
sell the minimum number of tickets as the reason.

Bert feels that he is entitled to the house and sues the
Foundation in a court of law. Discuss fully who will prevail and
                     SAMPLE ANSWER TO QUESTION 1

Resolution of this problem turns on whether Curly’s promise to
sell the car at a price of $22,500 was enforceable.

Advertisement as Offer

The classified ad to sell the car for a price of $25k could not
have resulted in a legally binding contract. The general rule is
that an advertisement is not an offer but rather is only an
invitation to accept offers. However if an advertisement has
words of promise and requests performance of a specific act, it
may constitute an offer that is capable of acceptance. The
circumstances described in the facts have no factors that would
take this ad outside the general rule and into the exception.
The advertisement was simply an invitation to receive offers.

Contract Formation

Moe’s inquiry “would you be willing to take $22,500.00 for it?”
was an offer. An offer is a manifestation of willingness to
enter into a bargain which creates in the offeree the power of
acceptance. Was Curly’s statement in response an acceptance? An
acceptance is a manifestation of willingness to be bound by the
terms of the offer made in the manner invited or required by the
offer. Curly’s statement that added the payment term of cash and
a deadline would appear at the very least to be a counter-offer
as opposed to an unequivocal acceptance. When Moe replied “deal”
that was the necessary manifestation of assent to the terms of
the counteroffer. A contract was formed at $22,500.00.

Statute of Frauds

This was an oral contract. The general rule is that an oral
contract is valid and enforceable. However, certain types of
oral contracts can be avoided if they are not evidenced by some
note or memorandum signed by the party to be charged. This is
known as the Statute of Frauds. One of the categories of
contracts within the Statute of Frauds are contracts for the
sale of goods for a price of $500 or more. The oral contract for
the sale of the car will not be enforceable unless the Statute
of Frauds writing requirement is satisfied.

To satisfy the statute there must be a writing, that evidences
the existence of a contract, that states a quantity term and is
signed by the party to be charged. Here, the problem with the
writing is that it is not signed by the party to be charged, the
party that is trying to avoid enforcement of the contract. If
both parties are merchants, i.e., persons who deal regularly in
goods of the kind or hold themselves out as having special
knowledge of the goods, then the “non-objecting merchant’ rule
may apply. That rule says that were a party to the contract
sends the other party a confirmatory memorandum that otherwise
satisfies the statute’s writing requirement, if the recipient
receives it and has reason to know its contents and fails to
object to it within 10 days, then the memorandum is good against
the recipient even though he hasn’t signed it. Here the
requirements would appear to be met except that there are no
facts to indicate that both parties are merchants.

The contract of sale will be unenforceable due to noncompliance
with the writing requirement of the statute of frauds.

Damages or Remedies

When the seller breaches a contract for the sale of goods the
measure of damages is the difference between the contract price
and the price of goods purchased in substitution together with
any incidental or consequential damages (UCC 2-712) or the
difference between the contract price and the market price. (UCC
2-713) However, if the goods are unique or in other appropriate
circumstances (such as an inability to cover) the buyer may be
entitled to specific performance. (UCC 2-716)

Here the facts indicate that the car was a rare “hard to get”
type model. As a result, monetary damages may be inadequate to
put the buyer in as good a position as if the contract had been
fully performed. Therefore the court may award specific
                   SAMPLE ANSWER TO QUESTION 2


An offer is a manifestation of willingness to enter into a
bargain which creates in the offeree, the power of acceptance.
Here the contest rules which promised something specific, one
house, in exchange for being the holder of the winning ticket
constituted an offer to enter into a unilateral contract.


An acceptance is a manifestation of willingness to be bound by
the terms of the offer, made in the manner invited or required
by the offer. When an offer looks towards the formation of a
unilateral contract (a promise for performance) than one accepts
the offer by completely performing the requested act. Bert did
so by holding the winning ticket.


A promise that is not supported by consideration is
unenforceable. Consideration is any act or forbearance which is
of benefit to the promisor or detriment to the promissee.
Additionally, it must arise in the context of a bargained for
exchange. The detriment must induce the promise and the promise
must induce the detriment.

A party incurs detriment when he or she does something that they
are not obligated to do. Normally, paying for the lottery ticket
would be the type of detriment that would support the promise to
award the house, but here Bert didn’t pay for the ticket. Since
no value was exchanged for the ticket it could be argued that
the promise to award the house was a gratuitous promise.

Illusory Promise

Furthermore, the promise to award the house, conditioned upon
the sale of a minimum number of tickets, could possibly an
illusory promise. An illusory promise is a promise conditioned
upon the whim of the promisor, leaving the election of whether
or not to perform solely to the promisor’s whim. The promise was
not illusory because the condition, sale of a minimum number of
tickets, was most likely beyond the promisor’s control depriving
them of the discretion of whether or not to perform.
Promissory Estoppel

If the promise lacks consideration to may nevertheless qualify
for enforcement on the basis of promissory estoppel. If it is
foreseeable that a promise will result in action or forbearance
on the part of the promisee and the promisee does in fact change
his or her position to their detriment in reasonable reliance on
the promise, then the promise may be enforceable to the extent
necessary to avoid injustice. Bert relied by canceling his lease
and buying a substantial amount of furniture. Of course the law
only protects reasonable reliance, and a court might view this
as being foolish rather than reasonable. Furthermore, injustice
may not result if the promise goes unenforced. Bert gave nothing
for the promise (he got the ticket for free) so there is no
injustice in the fact that he ended up with nothing.

Public Policy

The contract may be voidable on grounds of public policy. Courts
will not enforce contracts which are contrary to express
statutes, contrary to the policy of express statutes, or
contracts that are otherwise contrary to good morals. Here,
there is a statute that prohibits lotteries. The organizers of
the giveaway have tried to circumvent this law by giving away
tickets on request. While not expressly violating the statute
this appears to be a way to get around of the policy behind the

Duty to Read

Is Bert bound by the language on the reverse side? One who
willingly accepts a contract is bound by its terms, even if he
does not read the contract. The exceptions to this rule are if
the terms of the contract are concealed or hidden or if they are
unconscionable. Here the terms are on the reverse side and are
in very small type. If a court concludes that this is for the
purpose of hiding the terms it may not enforce them.


The arbitration clause may be refused enforcement if it is
determined to be unconscionable. A term is unconscionable if it
will result in surprise and hardship. Many courts hold
arbitration clauses unenforceable if they are unilaterally
imposed by the party of superior bargaining power on the grounds
that the party of inferior power would be surprised to find out
they had given up their right to go to court.

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