Cengage Advantage Books: Business Law 9th Edition by Arnold Goldman ,William Sigismond

Exercise 8

Brown entered a 7-Eleven store (in the state of California) to purchase a lottery ticket on a giveaway of over $7 million. He handed the salesperson a list of numbers he wished to play but was informed that the terminal had malfunctioned and could only give out tickets with terminal generated numbers. Brown refused and then sued the state of California and the 7-Eleven for breach of a unilateral contract. He argued that the state's advertising of the lottery constituted an offer and that he had accepted by tendering his own numbers to play and the appropriate amount of money but was refused the opportunity to play on this basis. He further argued that had the salesperson at the 7-Eleven allowed him to buy the lottery tickets using his own numbers, he would have won. Did a unilateral contract exist between Brown, the state of California (which ran the lottery), and the 7-Eleven store (which was unable to sell him the tickets) based on Brown's arguments? (Brown v. California State Lottery Commission, 284 Cal. Rptr. 108)