Quote:
Originally Posted by BRENT in 10-uh-C
I never did know the outcome or exactly what the fuss was over, but I often wondered at what point is a swap meet sale binding from a legal perspective?
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Verbal contracts are legally binding and find their way to courts on a regular basis. To be binding, a contract requires three things: consideration, offer, and acceptance.
Consideration means each party must surrender something of value. The "thing" may be intangible, and it is not required that the parties give the valuable thing to each other (for example I could pay you to give a car to my son). Offer means that one party signals his willingness to conclude the deal on the terms the parties have just discussed. Acceptance means the other party does the same. The signal can be verbal, or it can be as simple as I try to hand you money and you take it.
So in the Hershey case, even though no money had changed hands, if the parties had verbally agreed to the price, if the seller were to back out, the buyer would have a legal case. Whether it'd be worth enforcing is a whole other story.