1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



383 



What Constitutes a Contract? 



"Several weeks ago, in reply to an 

 inquiry for honey, we stated to the 

 party that we would ship him 5,000 

 pounds of honey, but no formal con- 

 tract signed by either was drawn up, 

 nor was any date of shipment agreed 

 to. 



Now we have advised the party that 

 we do not care to send the honey, in- 

 asmuch as we want to feed it back to 

 colonies of bees that are short of 

 stores. 



This party now threatens to sue us 

 for damages for the full amount . f 

 the honey. As we see, this party is 

 always ready to sue somebody if the 

 slightest chance is given. 



Previous to this we have been told 

 by this party in letters over his own 

 signature that he is not a beekeeper; 

 that he merely buys honey as cheaply 

 as he can, and sells it at a profit, per- 

 haps from 20 to 40 per cent. How- 

 ever, at the same time he tells his cus- 

 tomers that he is the producer of the 

 honey, or at least he gives his cus- 

 tomers to understand that he is the 

 producer of this honey, and they pur- 

 chase the product on this basis. 



In one instance of correspondence 

 he says : "A good bluff successfully 

 conducted, is the battle half won." 



Furthermore, he says: "All I have 

 is a mail box, and must keep up my ■ 

 reputation and guarantee by demand- 

 ing and delivering good products." 



Realizing that this party carries on 

 this sort of business, we decided that 

 we would not send him any more 

 honey. We did send him some honey 

 two years ago, before we found out 

 his methods. 



Please advise us whether or not 

 anyone has the right to sell honey by 

 such pretenses. 



If this party sues us for damages in 

 not sending the honey, would we have 

 grounds for a counter-suit? Possibly 

 your legal department can advise us." 

 Wisconsin. 

 A proposal by letter to deliver 

 honey, whether voluntary or in re- 

 sponse to an invitation or inquiry, if 

 accepted according to its terms, con- 

 stitutes a contract. 



The acceptance, to complete the con- 

 tract must be made within a reason- 

 able time, and must be unconditional. 

 If the conditions of the proposal are 

 varied in the acceptance, then they 

 must be consented to by the propos- 

 ing party. 



The proposal must be sufficiently 

 definite to identify the parties and 

 the subject matter, and sufficiently 

 specific in regard to the price and 

 other terms of sale to satisfy the law 

 of sales in general, in regard to these 

 particulars. 



Usually, where the time for per- 

 formance of any act is not specified 

 in the contract or proposal, the law 



will imply that a reasonable time un- 

 der the circumstances is intended by 

 the parties and the contract will not 

 fail for that omission. So also, unless 

 terms of credit are specified, the law 

 will imply that the transaction is to 

 be on a cash basis. 



The fact that the proposed pur- 

 chaser is engaged in disreputable or 

 illegal business will not avoid a con- 

 tract for the purchase of goods by 

 him or to him. If, however, it could 

 be shown that such purchaser intends 

 by such purchase to defraud the seller 

 or to use the goods of the particular 

 purchase to further a general scheme 

 to defraud whomsoever he may, the 

 rule might be otherwise. 



Under the late laws against what is 

 commonly called "profiteering," it is 

 possible that a contract can be avoid- 

 ed by showing that the purchaser in- 

 tends to create a scarcity of the arti- 

 cle on the market, or otherwise un- 

 lawfully influence prices. Precedents 

 along this line are lacking in author- 

 ity, however, and the point is not set- 

 tled. 



In general, the measure of damage 

 for failure to perform a contract of 

 sale of a marketable commodity is the 

 difference between the contract price 

 and the market price of the article. 

 If the seller refuses to deliver accord- 

 ing to the terms of his contract, the 

 buyer may purchase at a higher price 

 in the open market and hold his 



seller for the difference, if any, be- 

 tween what he paid and what he 

 should have paid under his contract. 

 On the other hand, if the buyer re- 

 fuses to accept the property and pay 

 the price of the contract, upon ten- 

 der of delivery within the contract 

 time at the contract place of deliv- 

 ery, the seller may sell on the open 

 market and hold the buyer under his 

 contract for the difference. 



It is quite a common experience 

 that this difference is less than the 

 price of a law suit, even to the win- 

 ner. 



Questions as to whether particular 

 correspondence constitutes a contract 

 and whether such a contract is en- 

 forceable, and the like, must be meas- 

 ured largely by the laws of the lo- 

 cality of the controversy, and one 

 should not proceed to the point of 

 litigation without the advice of com- 

 petent legal counsel. 



As a general proposition it is ad- 

 visable to live squarely up to the 

 terms of a contract or agreement of 

 any kind, whatever the cost, if it can 

 be done. Losses suffered and sac- 

 rifices made in this way generally 

 measure less than the loss of confi- 

 dence and self-respect consequent 

 upon a technical evasion. 



The keeping of the contracts is en- 

 couraged by the law, for the stability 

 of commerce depends largely thereon. 

 The courts are apt to look with dis- 

 favor upon a litigant who would avoid 

 the terms of a clear agreement to sell 

 and deliver. Even where, without 

 the fault of the seller, the goods of 

 the contract are destroyed before de- 

 livery, the seller may be held in dam- 

 ages for failure to deliver unless pro- 

 vision is made against such a contin- 

 gency in the contract. 



BEEKEEPING FOR WOMEN 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Strong Colony 



I have a hive of bees that will not 

 swarm. The hive is running over 

 with bees. I have given them a 2- 

 story hive and two supers, and the 

 whole thing is full. Can you tell 

 me what to do with it? I am new 

 to the business and can't understand 

 what is wrong. 



WISCONSIN. 



You have given the colony a two- 

 story hive and two supers, in all >f 

 which the bees are presumed to be 

 working, and you wonder why they 

 do not swarm. It is not hard to im- 

 agine those bees saying: "What 

 a kind mistress we have ! Other colo- 

 nies are forced to swarm because so 

 crowded for room, but our mistress 

 has given us all the room we need, 

 so we are saved all the bother of 

 swarming." If you had left them 

 with one story and one super, very 

 likely they would have swarmed. 

 There is a possibility, too, that the 

 character of the bees has something 

 to do with the case, for some colo- 



nies are more given to swarming 

 than others. At any rate, most bee- 

 keepers would feel thankful to have 

 bees like such a colony, quite willing 

 to do without swarming. 



Value of Plant, Etc. 



How would you go about setting 

 a value on your plant? How much 

 would you allow for strong, medium 

 and weak colonies? How much for 

 nuclei, old hives, equipment? Would 

 you go by what you paid or what 

 you could sell for? What is the best 

 -way to clean an extractor, and how 

 frequently should it be done? I 

 wish Miss Wilson would discuss this 

 subject quite fully. 



NEW JERSEY. 



Your question as to valuation of a 

 bee plant is one not easily answered. 

 Perhaps for purposes of declaring a 

 dividend on the investment the right 

 thing would be to count the actual 

 cost. But how figure on nuclei, etc., 

 that you have not bought? Suppose 

 you have a colony with bees enough 

 to cover we'll 8 or 10 frames, another 



