Allied Steel &
Conveyors, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co.
277
F.2d 907.
Facts: Ford bought some machinery
from Allied in 1955 to be installed by Ford’s employees. Then Ford offered to buy more machinery in
1956 to be installed by Allied’s employees.
Along with the offer was an indemnification form that said Allied must
take responsibility for negligence committed by Ford’s workers as well as its
own. Allied started installing the
machinery before they sent back the acceptance of the offer. One of Allied’s employees was injured as a
result of the negligence of one of Ford’s employees. Then Allied sent back their written
acceptance of the offer. That employee
sued Ford, and Ford brought in Allied as a third-party defendant. At trial, the employee prevailed against
Ford, but Ford prevailed against Allied in the same amount. Allied appealed.
Issue: Was the indemnity form
enforceable against Allied even though they hadn’t sent back written acceptance
of it?
Rule: If a certain manner of
acceptance wasn’t prescribed, but merely suggested, other methods of acceptance
may meet up with an offer to make a contract.
Analysis: The court finds that Allied
accepted the contract in full by performing it.
It doesn’t matter that they didn’t use the method of accepting the contract
that was included in the contract, because the court interprets it to be just a
suggested method of acceptance.
It would have been different if the contract had stipulated that a
written response was the only acceptable way of accepting the offer.
Conclusion: The judgment of the trial
court is affirmed.