Chris White
Southern New Hampshire University
BUS 206: Business Law
Dr. Shenkmen
June 5, 2022
In the case of Lucy v Zehmer, we had people that have known each other for years. Lucy has been trying to buy the farm from the Zehnder's for almost as long During a night of drink at the establishment that was owned by the Zehmers two men were enjoying a couple of whiskey drinks when Lucy joked that Zehmer would not sell his farm for 50k. After a few more whiskeys Zehmer finally agreed to sell the farm for 50k and drew up a contract on a piece of paper. This paper had some agreements such as the price of the sale and the agreement of a clean title. When Mr. Lucy went to cash in on the contract that they had agreed upon, that's when Mr. Zehmer informed Mr. Lucy, that he was not truly going to sell him the farm and that he was drunk and was just joking about the sale. Mr. Zehmer said that the contract that he drew up in the bar lacked "intent" and never intended to sell the land.
The court ruled in favor of Mr. Lucy in this case, Justice Buchanan ruled this way because he believed that Mr. Lucy would have had no idea that Mr. Zehmer had been joking the whole time at the bar. Mr. Zehmer even had his wife sign the contract to make it look even more legitimate in the eyes of Lucy and the court. Having Mr. Zehmer's wife sign the contract made Mr. Lucy feel as though this was going to be a deal and not a joke. Mr. Lucy felt that the contract he signed in the bar was in good faith and represented a serious business transaction, so much so that the next day Lucy asked if his brother wanted to invest in half of the farm and then hired an attorney to do a title search. Judge Buchanan also stated that "the law imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of his
words to an acts." I believe this means that Mr. Zehmer's words and actions led
Lucy to take the next steps to acquire the land.
I am going to agree with Judge Buchanan on his ruling on this case. I think that the contract that was drawn up in the bar was a binding contract. I know the two men had been drinking and that may have loosened up Mr. Zehmer to finally agree on the sale. At some point during the night, Zehmer should have stated that he was joking and should have never had his wife sign the contract. I think that if she did not sign then the contract would have not been binding. When Mr. Zehmer made the contract, he put on the top "We agree to sell" meaning the two agreed. Even with Zehmer saying the two men were "as high as a Georgia pine"