Abbott v. Stephany Poultry Co.

62 A.2d 243, 44 Del. 513, 5 Terry 513, 1948 Del. Super. LEXIS 115
CourtSuperior Court of Delaware
DecidedNovember 15, 1948
DocketNo. 11
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 62 A.2d 243 (Abbott v. Stephany Poultry Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abbott v. Stephany Poultry Co., 62 A.2d 243, 44 Del. 513, 5 Terry 513, 1948 Del. Super. LEXIS 115 (Del. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

Layton, J.

The letter of November 8, 1944 was not a valid contract of itself. It was unilateral in form and lacked consideration because Plaintiff could have delivered “broilers” or not, as he saw fit. Williston, Vol. 1, § 58. As long as _ the offer remained open, Defendant was bound to accept and pay for such deliveries of “broilers” as Plaintiff chose to make. Conversely, Defendant was free at any time to notify Plaintiff that its outstanding offer was cancelled. Holloway v. Mountain Grove Creamery Co., 286 Mo. 489, 228 S.W. 451. But whether, in a unilateral agreement of this sort, a promisor may cancel his outstanding offer subsequent to partial performance on the part of the promisee is one of the most debatable subjects in the law of contracts. \TKeTlountain\ Grove Creamery Co. case is no authority for this proposition because, there, Defendant’s notice of cancellation preceded the deliveries of the milk the contract price of which was in controversy.*1 J

A study of the numerous text authorities and decisions convinces me that there are but two approaches to the question (1) Regardless of the equities, to apply strictly the principles of law peculiar to unilateral contracts — that is, to treat them as offers calling for completed acts and, so long as the required act remains but partially performed, then subject to the right of cancellation by the offeror (2) To weigh the equities and, when the offeree has suffered a serious detriment or disadvantage in undertaking, but has been [519]*519unable to complete, the performance sought by the offer, then, to treat the part performance by offeree as giving rise to a consideration which will convert the unilateral offer into an enforceable, bilateral contract.

Though a rare occurrence, today, the unilateral contract is clearly recognized in our system of law. The consideration for a unilateral promise is “a detriment incurred by the promisee or a benefit received by the promisor at the request of the Promisor.” Williston, Yol. 1, § 102; or, stating it even more simply, an offer calling for a completed performance. I see no possibility of construing the letter of November 8, 1944 as other than unilateral. As I interpret this agreement, the Defendant was interested in the delivery of “broilers” from time to time, not in the offeree’s act of putting in baby “chicks” for future delivery if, indeed, he thereafter chose to make delivery at all. In a case of this sort many respectable authorities on the subject seem to support promisor’s right to cancel his offer with impunity at any time until a complete performance has been tendered him. Some of the decisions are collected in Willis-ton, Vol. I, § 60 A, Note 2, page 168. | In Siensgaard v. Smith, 43 Minn. 11, 44 N.W. 669, 670, 19 Am.St.Rep. 205 promisor gave promisee the exclusive right for 90 days to make sale of certain real estate at a specified commission. Promisee used his best efforts to make sale thereof but before succeeding, promisor himself sold it. Upon a suit by promisee for damages for breach of contract, the Supreme Court of Minnesota had this to say: “This instrument, executed only by the defendant, was effectual, as we have said, as a present, but revocable, grant of authority to sell. It involved, moreover, an offer on the part of the defendant to contract with the plaintiff that the latter should have, for the period of three months, the exclusive right to sell thei land. This action is based upon the theory that such a con-j tract was entered into; but, to constitute such a contract, [520]*520it was necessary that the plaintiff should in some way signify his acceptance of the offer, so as to place himself under the reciprocal obligation to exert himself during the whole period named to effect a sale. No express agreement was shown. The mere receiving and retaining this instrument did not import an agreement thus to act for the period named, for the reason that, whether the plaintiff should be willing to take upon him that obligation or not, he might accept and act upon the revocable authority to sell expressed in the writing; and if he should succeed in effecting a sale before the power should be revoked, he would earn the commission specified. In other words, the instrument was presently effectual, and of advantage to him, whether he chose to place himself under contract obligations or not. For the same reason the fact that for a day or a month he availed himself of the right to sell conferred by the defendant, by attempting to make a sale, does not justify the inference, in an action where the burden is on the plaintiff to prove a contract, that he had accepted the offer of the defendant to conclude a contract covering the period of three months, so that he could not have discontinued his efforts without rendering himself liable in damages. In brief, it was in the power of the plaintiff either to convert the defendant’s offer and authorization into a complete contract, or to act upon it as a naked revocable power, or to do nothing at all. He appears to have simply availed himself for about a month of the naked present right to sell, if he could do so. He cannot now complain that the landowner then revoked the authority, which was still unexecuted. * * *”

To the same effect are Roberts v. Harrington, 168 Wis. 217, 169 N.W. 603, 10 A.L.R. 810; Elliott v. Kazajian, 255 Mass. 459, 152 N.E. 351; Sonino v. Magrini, 225 App.Div. 536, 234 N.Y.S. 63, and Petterson v. Pattberg, 248 N.Y. 86, 161 N.E. 428. None of these cases rests upon facts such as here but the expressed principles are clear. j Nor does Mr. [521]*521Williston deny that, in theory, the right always exists in the promisor to revoke until a complete performance has been tendered. Thus, in § 60, Vol. 1, he states:

“It seems difficult on theory successfully to question the power of one who offers to enter into a unilateral contract to withdraw his offer at any time until performance has been completed by the offeree, but great injustice may arise if the offeror’s power of revocation continues so long. For instance, if A offers one hundred dollars if B will complete a piece of work, and B sets about the work and nearly finishes it, it is a hardship upon B if, while the work is still incomplete, A may revoke his offer. Yet to say that the beginning of work by B amounts to an assent binding both A and B to the performance and payment is to change the hypothesis that A offered not to make a bilateral contract but a unilateral one in which not part but all the act requested was to be the consideration, and in effect to deny the right of an offeror to dictate the terms of his offer. * * *

“But the case supposed is one where the offer is so clearly for the formation of a unilateral contract, requiring prolonged performance, that no other reasonable interpretation is possible than that the offeror demands as an exchange for his promise, not a promise but a completed act. After the offeree has begun to perform under such an offer he may unquestionably stop performance halfway if he concludes that after all he does not care to enter into the contract, and if the offeror also may not revoke at that time he seems bound by a promise for which he has not received, and may never receive, the consideration requested, since the whole transaction is still optional with the offeree.”

On the other hand Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
62 A.2d 243, 44 Del. 513, 5 Terry 513, 1948 Del. Super. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abbott-v-stephany-poultry-co-delsuperct-1948.