Lucy v. Zehmer

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding the outward expression of intention, rather than subjective belief of intention, creates a legally binding contract
• explaining that the parties’ “words and acts, judged by a reasonable standard, [must] manifest an intention to agree, [and] it is immaterial what may be the real but unexpressed state of his mind” (emphasis added)
• finding an impromptu land contract on a napkin agreed to over drinks to be an enforceable contract
• describing the parties' extensive discussion prior to and during the creation of the contract
• \The law . . . judges of an agreement between two persons exclusively from those expressions of their intentions which are communicated between them.\
• “[T]he law imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of his words and acts.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).