Oswald v. Allen

Ms. Allen ("Allen"), an American citizen, was a collector of Swiss coins.

The plaintiff (Mr. Oswald, "Oswald", a Swiss citizen), a doctor from Switzerland, was interested in a collection of Swiss coins owned by the defendant ("Allen").

In April of 1964, Oswald arranged a meeting to see the Allen’s coins. She showed him (Oswald) 2 of her collections, which she referred to as

1. the Swiss Coin Collection &
2. the Rarity Coin Collection.

Each collection had a different key number and was housed in different cigar boxes.

The plaintiff (Oswald) testified that he did not know the coins were in a separate collection. They negotiated a price of $50,000 for the Swiss Coin Collection, & evidently did not realize that the term Swiss Coin Collection was ambiguous.

Plaintiff (Oswald) filed suit for breach of contract when Allen refused to send over the 2 coin collections.

The trial court ruled that a contract did not exist since the minds of the parties had not been met. Plaintiff (Oswald) appealed.

Whether a contract has been formed when a primary term of the agreement is ambiguous and the parties understand it in different ways.

When any of the terms used to express an agreement is ambivalent, and the parties understand it in different ways, there cannot be a contract unless one of them should have been aware of the other’s understanding.