A buyer in Lexington, Massachusetts makes a written offer to purchase a property for $975,000. The seller's agent presents the offer, and the seller signs the offer without any changes and returns it to the buyer's agent. However, the seller's agent adds a handwritten note to the accepted offer stating: 'Seller requests closing no later than 45 days from today.' The buyer's agent delivers the signed offer with the handwritten note to the buyer, who does nothing further. Under Massachusetts contract law, what is the most accurate description of the parties' legal status?
Correct Answer
D) No contract was formed because the handwritten note added by the seller's agent constitutes a counteroffer that requires the buyer's written acceptance
This question involves the mirror image rule and the effect of unauthorized modifications. The seller's agent added a handwritten note requesting a 45-day closing deadline to the accepted offer. Even if the seller signed the original offer without changes, the agent's addition of new terms — even framed as a 'request' — creates ambiguity about whether the seller's acceptance was truly unconditional. More critically, under the mirror image rule, any addition to or modification of an offer during the acceptance process constitutes a counteroffer. Because the agent added new terms to the document before returning it, the acceptance was not a clean mirror-image acceptance of the buyer's offer. No binding contract exists until the buyer accepts the modified terms in writing.
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Related Topics & Key Terms
Key Terms:
Related Concepts
An appraisal contingency allows the buyer to cancel or renegotiate the contract if the property's appraised value comes in lower than the agreed-upon purchase price. This contingency protects buyers from overpaying.
An assignment of contract transfers one party's rights and obligations under a contract to a third party called the assignee. The original party, known as the assignor, transfers their contractual position to someone who was not originally part of the agreement.
A bilateral contract is an agreement in which both parties exchange promises and are both obligated to perform, while a unilateral contract is one in which only one party makes a promise and the other party is not obligated to act.
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