Business law case analysis

¶ … Acceptance

Business Legal Case

The author of this response is offered a business legal case and is asked to give an opinion on whether one firm has a case against another. The author of this report will offer a response and will back it up using arguments going either way. In short, the answer up front is that ABC Corporation probably does not have a case but Mr. Jones acted quite carelessly and can get himself into quite a legal pickle in the future if he is not careful because he is leaving his fate to judicial review when he makes decisions like the one he made here (USLegal, 2013).

Points against Mr. Jones

Jones has two things working against him in this case. First, he was foolish enough to not have an expiration time and date for the counter-offer he made. ABC had one and there is a reason. If no expiration time is noted, then if/when legal challenges occur against the enforcement (or non-enforcement, in this case) of a contract, it is left to judicial review which can encompass prior dealings between the firms, industry standards, and so forth (USLegal, 2013).

The second miscue that Mr. Jones made is that he acted with XYZ Corporation without first retracting the offer he made to ABC Corporation. If he truly did not want to deal with ABC anymore and the offer was still potentially valid, he should have told ABC it was off the table. ABC, even if it didn't stand up on judicial review, had every reason to believe the offer was still valid because Mr. Jones had not communicated retraction of the offer. The only reason that would not reasonably hold true under the law is that a month passed between the offer and the acceptance, and that is quite a long time (USLegal, 2013).

Points against ABC Corporation

The main thing in this case that works against ABC Corporation is that they waited a month to accept the offer and that time lapse will probably be their undoing when they go to trial on this matter. It is not noted the time lapse or the actual date of the initial ABC offer, but unless it was close to or more than a month, it is unlikely that a month would be considered "reasonable" in terms of contract enforcement (USLegal, 2013).

Again, as noted above, Mr. Jones was exceedingly foolish for not offering an offer expiration or actually retracting the offer. However, for ABC to not pick up the phone and make sure Mr. Jones was actually still interested is just bad business and even if they could win a legal case, it seems more like a game of "gotcha" than good business (USLegal, 2013).

Verdict

Given all of the above, unless a month is "reasonable" per prior dealings and general standards for the business and industry at hand, ABC is not going to win the case, as a month is quite a bit of time. Mr. Jones was careless, but a month with no response from ABC is not terribly reasonable either, even with Mr. Jones' careless contract work and retraction skills. Mr. Jones should not be held to the contract (USLegal, 2013).