Reference no: EM132201900

Rivets, Inc. is an Oregon corporation that manufactures custom rivets. Their specialty, advertised prominently on their marketing material, is large rush orders. Their brochure says "Rivets in a Rush- Guaranteed!" Rivets, Inc. advertises itself as one of the few companies in the United States that can handle large production of custom rivets delivered to the customer within 5 days of ordering. Big Dog Construction Co. is a California construction company that constructs large skyscrapers. It is working on a skycraper in Texas that is five months over schedule. Their rivet supplier has gone out of business and Big Dog is in dire need of custom rivets as soon as possible. John of Big Dog Construction calls Rivets, Inc. and speaks to the sales manager, Gene. John says, "Gene, I need 500,000 custom rivets in 5 days. I'll pay 1.5 times your current market price." Gene says that they are booked with other jobs but could probably provide 300,000 rivets in 7 days if Rivets, Inc. was able to add extra shifts. John gets on a plane and hand delivers the design for the custom rivets and payment for 300,000 rivets to Rivets, Inc.'s headquarters in California. The next day, Gene learned that the manufacturing plant was fully booked and the soonest they could provide 300,000 rivets to Big Dog was 10 days later. Gene conveyed this information to John via email and did not hear back from John. Gene directed the accounting department to return Big Dog's check via U.S. mail. Ten days later, John calls Gene extremely upset asking where the 300,000 rivets are. Gene says that he never heard back from John and assumed that Big Dog found rivets somewhere else. Big Dog is now even more delayed on its skyscraper project and wants to sue Rivets, Inc. for damages arising out of breach of contract. The court will likely conclude that: Big Dog is entitled to equitable relief because Gene knew about the time sensitivity but emailed John instead of calling. no contract was formed because John failed to accept Gene's counteroffer. Rivets, Inc. violated its guarantee to provide custom rivets in 5 days a valid contract was formed because John's immediate payment was acceptance of a valid counteroffer to provide the rivets in 7 days.