Opinion ID: 1479677
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: THE LETTERS OF APRIL 25, 1968 and DECEMBER 31, 1968

Text: It is possible, of course, that a clear indication of contractual intent might be gleaned from the documents themselves, and to that end, they must be considered. Litton's letter of April 25, 1968 reads: We hereby extend you an offer to enter into an option agreement. . . . This offer to enter into an option agreement shall be firm and irrevocable until December 31, 1968 at 5:00 P.M. E.S.T. Bethlehem on December 31, 1968 responded: We hereby accept your offer of an option. . . . As the trial court indicated, if Bethlehem had accepted what was offered, it would have accepted your offer to enter into an option agreement, not your offer of an option. By purporting to accept an option, Bethlehem, was, as the trial court put it, accepting more than was offered. Thus, it cannot be said from an examination of the documents alone that the parties intended to be contractually bound to the terms of the writings, for one was offering we know not what and the other was accepting something that was not offered. Moreover, the writings contain a number of open terms: (a) an excalation index (a multiplier which adjusts the price of labor and materials for inflation), (b) an appropriate contract clause providing for quarterly escalation after the option is exercised (hereinafter referred to as an apportionment clause because it determines the manner in which escalation will be paid or apportioned over each quarter of the contract period); (c) any other mutually agreed to terms and conditions. Nevertheless, regardless of the ambiguity of the writings, because the parties' conduct, under the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, may indicate that the parties did in fact intend to be contractually bound and, and because under the Code the missing terms may be able to be supplied by a court, we must examine the principles of the law under the Code which govern the formation of sales contracts. [4]