Question

Raymond lives in Vancouver, BC and Thomas lives in Halifax, NS. They both own neighboring summer homes in Port Blanford, NL.

Raymond entered into negotiations over the phone with Thomas to purchase Thomas’ Private 5 acre oceanfront summer home in Port Blanford, NL. Following their discussion, Thomas sent by mail on June 10^th, 2011 a handwritten letter to Raymond which stated as follows:

“I will sell you my oceanfront summer home in Port Blanford for $300,000.00”.  

The handwritten note did not contain a date for completion of the sale and was not signed.

Immediately upon receiving the letter on June 15^th, Raymond sent a written reply which stated as follows: “In consideration of our agreement whereby I will purchase your summer home for the sum of $300,000.00, enclosed is a deposit of $10,000 to bind our bargain”. The note was signed by Raymond and was deposited in the mail on June 15^th as shown by the stamp from Canada Post.

The next day, Raymond flew to NL to start work on his “new” property. He immediately started work on a brand new infinity pool he was putting in. Several large trees had to be cut down and a large hole was in the early stages of being dug.

On June 18^th Thomas flew to NL to head out to his summer home in Port Blandord. Upon his arrival Raymond prepared a cheque in the amount of $290,000 and took it over to Thomas. Thomas met Raymond at the end of the gated driveway and said that he had not received Raymond’s acceptance of the offer and had actually sent a letter to Raymond on June 16^th stating that he did not wish to move off the property and had decided not to sell his summer home.

Discuss Raymond’s rights, if any, in this case and explain the possible outcome if Raymond should decide to take legal action against Thomas. Does Thomas have any defences?

Answer 1

In the case, there are both offer and acceptance by both parties which are the most important part of the contract. By Thomas posting a mail for an offer to sell his summer home to Raymond and started the piece of the house, which represents the offer. Also, Raymond replied and immediately posted the mail; it represents the acceptance of the offer and also included the down payment that represents consideration. In the eyes of the law, on June 15th, the contract is made between both parties and by acceptance and payment of down payment represents a successful sale of the property which gave Raymond the rights to alter the state of the property as he did in working on the pool.

Thomas had used postal as a means of sending the offer, thus by Raymond posting the letter of acceptance does represent the acceptance of the offer regardless of the fact that the offeror does receive the letter. It is urged that the preferred medium of the person that brings the offer was the chosen media by them and if it fails, it is their problem if they fail to receive the letter of acceptance (Jackson, R. (2010). Thus, Thomas cannot argue from that perspective that he did not receive the letter of acceptance and that he did not wish to move out of the property. But, Thomas has a way of arguing the case out, he needs to go to a court of law and prove to the court that he suffers from memory loss and has a friend who can proof that. Also, when he was making the decision to sell the property, he was not in the right state of mind to make sound decision. Thus, the court might consider that if he proofs that he suffers from memory loss and by the time he sent the mail of the offer, he was not on memory loss.