Court Opinion

ID: 9642139
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:49:42.623343+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:09:03.035948
License: Public Domain

Smith, J.,

dissenting:

The rationale for the doctrine that death of an offeror revokes an offer is found in 1 Restatement of Contracts § 48 (1952), and 1 A. Corbin, Contracts § 54 (1963). The Restatement states:
*237"§ 48. Termination of Offer by Offeror’s Death or Insanity.
A revocable offer is terminated by the offeror’s death or such insanity as deprives him of legal capacity to enter into the proposed contract. Comment:
a. The death or insanity of the offeree also in effect terminates a revocable offer because it thereby becomes impossible to accept it. . . .”
Professor Corbin says on the subject:
"§ 54. Effect of Death or Insanity on Power of Acceptance
It is very generally said that the death of the offeror terminates the offeree’s power of acceptance even though the offeree has no knowledge of such death. Such general statements arose out of the earlier notion that a contract cannot be made without an actual meeting of minds at a single moment of time, a notion that has long been abandoned. The rule has also been supposed to follow by some logical necessity from the dictum that it takes two persons to make a contract. It is not contrary to that dictum to deny that death terminates power to accept; the offer was made by a living man and is accepted by another living man. One and one make two. The rule has also been explained on the ground that the surviving offeree intended to contract with the deceased offeror and can not be forced into relations with a personal representative, a different person. This explanation is not applicable in case the surviving offeree is the one who is insisting on the validity of the contract. It is somewhat more plausible if it is the surviving offeree who is defending against the contract. He accepted in reliance on the promise and credit of a specific living person, and the shift to those of a personal representative may be materially disadvantageous. *238In practically all cases, however, the accepting offeree is sufficiently protected by the rule that makes any contractor’s duty constructively conditional on the ability of the other party to render substantially in full the agreed exchange for which the offeree bargained. If the offeror’s personal representative can sufficiently assure the performance of this condition, there is little reason for refusing to enforce the contract against the offeree. He is in the very position that he would occupy if the offeror’s death had occurred the moment after acceptance instead of just before it. In either case, if the personal representative is unwilling or unable to render the agreed exchange substantially in full, the promises made by the offeree will not be enforced against him.” Id. at 227-28.
A similar view is expressed in 1 S. Williston, Contracts § 62 (3d ed. W. Jaeger 1957):
"Assuming that the formation of a contract required mutual mental assent of the parties, and offer and acceptance were merely evidence of such assent, it would be obviously impossible that a contract should be formed where either party to the transaction died before this assent was obtained. That such assent was formerly thought necessary seems probable, and as to death, this theory is still maintained. Accordingly, it is generally held that the death of the offeror terminates the offer.” Id. at 206-07.
Given the fact that the wife in this instance was a party to the offer and that the entire title is now vested in her by operation of law, I can see no logical reason for holding that she is not bound by her offer.
In determining whether to extend this rule, so criticized by Professor Corbin, to a tenancy by the entirety situation, the majority might wish to ponder the origin of the tenancy by the entirety concept. Phipps, Tenancy by Entireties, 25 Temp. L.Q. 24 (1951), states:
*239"A species of common-law concurrent ownership, tenancy by the entireties developed as part of the English feudal system of land tenures. The exigencies of feudalism demanded that the functions of ownership be vested in males, presumably capable of bearing arms in war. Women were lightly regarded legally, and especially married women — whose very identities, in most respects, were considered merged and lost in the personalities of their husbands. For purposes of property and of contract, the married woman was under a complete legal blackout termed coverture. Man and wife were one and the one was male.
"One result was that titles to land taken in the name of a wife and titles which she brought with her into marital status were subject immediately to the husband’s exclusive dominion and control, by virtue of his rights jure uxoris; and marriage amounted to an absolute gift of all the wife’s personal property to the husband.
"A fortiori, titles taken in the names of both husband and wife were subject to the exclusive control of the husband during the marriage. At common law a transfer of title to the husband and wife was a transfer to an entirety and unity under the husband’s dominion, since both the spouses were regarded together as one. The result was tenancy by the entireties — wherein neither spouse held any respective interest or share, and upon the death of one, the whole estate still belonged as before to the survivor.” Id. at 24-25.
Moreover, 2 American Law of Property § 6.6 (A.J. Casner ed. 1952), says on the subject:
"Much valid criticism has been leveled against the estate by the entirety. It is an anachronism in that the married women’s property acts have almost completely obliterated the hypostasis which was the common law basis for the creation of the *240estate. Moreover, it has many practical disadvantages. There is great uncertainty as to how the tenancy may be created. It is unsuited to situations where the separate rights of each spouse must be enforced, and tends in such cases to produce unreasonable and even antisocial results. It affords too great an opportunity to frustrate the rights of the creditors of one spouse. Even tax advantages, once inherent in estates by the entirety, are now largely ephemeral.
"The social undesirability of the consequences attendant upon the estate by the entirety are readily apparent. Even ostensibly desirable ends, such as depriving an improvident spouse of the opportunity of dissipating the family’s entire wealth or enabling a husband and wife to have the advantage of the right of survivorship, may best be achieved in other ways. Improved homestead laws, more extensively used community property systems, and tenancies in common with remainder to the surviving spouse are all methods calculated to secure the advantages which might inhere in an estate by the entirety, without its concomitant disadvantages. It has, therefore, been proposed that the tenancy by the entirety be abolished wherever it still exists. With this proposal we agree.” Id. at 32 (emphasis added).
Given the original rationale for the rule, Professor Corbin’s criticism of the rule, Dean Phipps’ view of the origin of the tenancy by the entirety concept, and the view of such a responsible group as the editors of American Law of Property that tenancy by the entirety should be abolished, I am unwilling to endorse the majority opinion. I would hold that the offer survived the death of one of the tenants by the entirety and hence the widow is bound.
Judge Digges authorizes me to say that he concurs in the views here expressed.