Joe sends Sanjay an offer via email from his Toronto office.The offer contains a provision indicating the offer expires at 5:00 p.m.Toronto time.Sanjay,who lives in Vancouver,replies accepting Joe's offer at 4:00 p.m.Vancouver time.Joe received Sanjay's email acceptance at 9:00a.m.the next day.Which of the following statements is true? (Note the three-hour time difference between Toronto and Vancouver.)
A) Joe and Sanjay had a binding contract, since Sanjay had accepted by 4:00 p.m. Vancouver time.
B) Once Sanjay had sent the email, a binding contract had been formed, regardless of what time Joe received the email.
C) Joe's offer had expired.
D) The contract became binding once Joe had made the offer.
E) A binding contract had been formed once Joe opened Sanjay's email acceptance the next day.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Joe's offer explicitly stated that it expired at 5:00 p.m. Toronto time. Sanjay's acceptance at 4:00 p.m. Vancouver time, which is 7:00 p.m. Toronto time, was therefore not within the timeframe of the offer and cannot form a binding contract. Therefore, the offer had expired before Sanjay could accept it. None of the other options are correct because they either ignore the time limit in the offer or assume a binding contract even though the offer had expired.

Joe Sends Sanjay an Offer Via Email from His Toronto