213 Mich. 484 | Mich. | 1921
(after stating the facts). We are persuaded that the trial judge should have directed a verdict for the defendant. Where no time is fixed in the offer for its acceptance, it expires at the end of a reasonable time. 9 Cyc. p. 291, 13 C. J. p. 297; and when such reasonable time has elapsed the offer is withdrawn without any affirmative act of the parties.
.The parties understood that the offer, if used at all, was to be used as a basis of a, bid to be opened April 4th. Undoubtedly the reasonable time for acceptance did not begin to run until that date. But 63 days, over two months, elapsed after that date before plaintiff even acknowledged receipt of, or communicated with defendant with reference to, its letter of March 20th. In the meantime the market value of the commodity had risen 150 per cent. When dealing in a commodity of fluctuating value this delay was so unreasonable as to require the court to say, as matter of law, that the reasonable time in which to accept the offer had expired.
But plaintiff’s counsel insist that in 1914 defendant sold similar supplies to plaintiff for the same purpose, that the delay then was greater than in the year 1916, and that the 1914 transaction should be considered as a similar transaction and have a bearing on the transaction in hand. The record discloses the transaction of 1914, and in some regards it was quite dissimilar from
The judgment must be affirmed.