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

Exercise 7

Spanos was three years behind in property tax payments on a building he owned. He listed the property for sale with a real estate agent and was made an offer of $230,000 in writing from D'Agostino. Spanos drew a line through the $230,000 figure and wrote in $235,000, initialed the price change, signed the offer, and returned it to D'Agostino. D'Agostino would not accept the offer as changed. Spanos orally informed D'Agostino that he would restore the price to the original $230,000. D'Agostino drew a line through the $235,000 figure that Spanos had inserted in the offer, wrote in $230,000, initialed the change, and returned the offer to Spanos. Spanos, however, never initialed the document after D'Agostino changed the written price back to $230,000. Spanos and D'Agostino never did arrive at a mutually acceptable price. Spanos instead sold the property to another buyer. D'Agostino, upon hearing of this sale, brought an action against Spanos requiring him to sell the property to him. Should D'Agostino win his case? (D'Agostino v. Bank of Ravenswood, 563 N.E.2d 886)