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Show The question is. often. asked whether a contract made by telephone is binding. bind-ing. Several law-suits have grown out of such contracts. This question was recently decided by Judge Valliaut, of St. Lonls. lie holds that contracts oy telephone, when proven, are quite as binding as any other contracts, but that there is an obstacle to tho certainty of the proof, owing to tho difficulty of Identifying tho person with whom, telephonic communication commu-nication is held. Tho case in which the decision was given is thus summarized summar-ized by Bradstreut's: "The plaintiff company sued to recover tho value of certain lots of irou sold to tho defendants, defend-ants, regarding tho price of which there was a dispute. The defendants testified testi-fied that they called up a certain number and asked who it was, and the - answer eamo back that it was the' plaintiff conjpany. Defendants then ask the price of iron delivered through the month of August, and the price which they claimed as the contract con-tract price was given. Tho plaintiffs' testimony was to tho effect that there were but twO luen' connfectod with its concern who had, authority to make such contracts, and that ueither of thorn ever heard of tho telephonic conversation conversa-tion until after tho controversy arose." Tho plaintiffs won their case, but had tho defendants beon able to identify the person with whom the telephonic conversation con-versation was hold as a person authorized author-ized to mako contracts, the contract by telephone would have held good. |