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Dodds (D) made a signed offer to sell his house to Dickinson (P), and that offer was to remain open until two days later. The offer was to be open until Friday 9 in the morning of the 12th of June 1874. P decided to buy the house, but only after learning from Berry, an agent for D, that D was going to sell to Allan. P learned that D was going to sell to Allan in the afternoon of the Thursday before the expiration of the offer. P then immediately went to D's mother in laws house where D was staying and made a formal acceptance of the offer in writing. The mother in law forgot to give D that acceptance. The next morning an agent for P, Berry, met D at a train station and handed D a duplicate of the original acceptance. D then informed Berry that the property had been sold. P himself then found D and offered the acceptance a few minutes later but was told that the property had already been sold. On the day before, D had signed a formal contract of sale with Allan. P sued for specific performance. The trial court found for P in specific performance in that by the original offer or agreement with P and by relation back of the acceptance to the date of the offer, D had lost the power to make a sale to Allan. D appealed.

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Legal analysis from Dean's Law Dictionary will be displayed here.