Offer Lapses on Death
Idina Iverson mailed an offer to sell her warehouse to Idris Ives. Before Ives responded, Iverson suffered a stroke that left her comatose. The power of acceptance ended because the offeror lost capacity.
Also known as: incapacities · incapacitated · incapacitating · legal incapacity · mental incapacity
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A legal disability arising from lack of physical or mental capability that prevents certain legal consequences from attaching to a person's actions or from the performance of duties.
Idina Iverson mailed an offer to sell her warehouse to Idris Ives. Before Ives responded, Iverson suffered a stroke that left her comatose. The power of acceptance ended because the offeror lost capacity.
Ian Iverson appointed Ines Ibarra as his agent to manage rental properties. After Iverson entered a persistent vegetative state, Ibarra could no longer bind him to new leases because the principal's loss of capacity terminated the authority.
Israel Irving underwent surgery while heavily medicated and unable to understand the procedure. The surgeon's touching therefore constituted a battery because Irving lacked capacity to consent.
Igor Ito and his spouse submitted their divorce to arbitration and asked the arbitrator to name a guardian for Ito's incapacitated parent. The arbitrator's award granting guardianship exceeded statutory authority and was vacated.
Inertia Dynamics paid a premium for an option to purchase land from Island Manufacturing. When the manufacturing company's president became incapacitated, the option remained enforceable because death or incapacity does not terminate an option contract.
Insight Consulting contracted with Imperial Motors for the personal services of a specific engineer. When the engineer suffered permanent brain damage rendering performance impossible, the consulting firm's duty was discharged by supervening incapacity.
No. Incapacity terminates the power of acceptance under ordinary offers but does not terminate the power under an option contract unless the requirements for discharge of a contractual duty are met.
Supporting sources
The loss of capacity by the principal has the same effect on the agent's authority during the period of incapacity as the principal's death.
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No. Family law arbitration statutes prohibit arbitrators from issuing awards that grant guardianship of an incapacitated individual. Such determinations remain the exclusive province of the courts.
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Supervening incapacity discharges a duty when the existence of a particular person is necessary for performance and the non-occurrence of that incapacity was a basic assumption on which the contract was made.
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…allowed a set of directors to be placed in office, whether by their vote or their failure to vote, must recognize that death, incapacity or other hazard may prevent a director from serving a full term, and that they will have no voice as to his immediate successor. But the stockholders are entitled to expect that, in that…