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Mesaros v. United States | 845 F.2d 1576 (1988)
Generally, binding contracts arise through offer and acceptance. An offer is the offeror’s statement of intent to enter a contract on definite, binding terms. The offeree’s acceptance creates a contract on those terms. Initially, this process seems straightforward. But when the parties exchange multiple communications, as they often do, it’s sometimes hard to determine when the offer and acceptance occur. This problem minted the dispute in the case of Mesaros versus United States.
In July of nineteen eighty-five, Congress enacted the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Commemorative Coin Act. The act authorized the United States Mint to produce up to twenty-five million special half-dollar coins, ten million silver dollars, and half a million gold five-dollar coins. The goal was to raise money to repair, renovate, and maintain the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island national monuments.
Before the coins went on sale, the mint mailed promotional materials to known collectors. Per the materials, the mint would accept orders by credit card, check, or money order. The mint contracted with the Bank of Mellon to process credit-card orders. The order form contained, above the customer’s signature line, language asking the mint to please accept the customer’s order.
The mint easily filled virtually all orders by check, money order, or wire transfer. But credit-card orders were a different story. At the time, processing credit-card payments involved a tedious, manual process requiring multiple correspondences by physical mail. This process took much too long for about thirteen thousand credit-card orders for gold coins, which sold out quickly. By the time many of these credit-card orders could be processed, the mint was out of the gold coins and, by statute, couldn’t make any more. Of course, in many instances, errors exacerbated the delay in credit-card processing.
Among the disappointed would-be credit-card purchasers were Anthony and Mary Mesaros, who’d received the promotional materials. The mint rejected the Mesaroses’ credit-card order for the above reasons, but the Mesaroses’ separate orders by check were fulfilled.
Even so, the Mesaroses sued the mint in federal district court for breach of contract. They argued that the promotional materials represented an offer to sell coins at stated prices. Their order was an acceptance, creating a binding contract. The district court disagreed and granted summary judgment for the mint. The Mesaroses appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, and the case was transferred to the Federal Circuit.
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