Republic Bank acquired medical equipment through a lease default and contracted Tetra Financial Services to facilitate sale of the equipment. Mark, a Tetra employee, was assigned to the task. West Penn, a large hospital system in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area, expressed an interest in purchasing the equipment and had one of its contract negotiators, Michele, handle it.
Michele sent Mark an e-mail on February 26, stating:
We are interested in the 64-slice scanner, CT workstation, ultrasound, and ultrasound table.
Our offer is as follows:
Scanner: ............... $600,000
CT workstation: ............ $50,000
Ultrasound and ultrasound table: ...... $26,500
On March 13, Mark sent Michele an e-mail stating:
Michele: I met with the bank president this morning and he gave me approval to sell West Penn the 64-slice scanner, CT workstation, and ultrasound unit with table for the total amount offered below [referring to Michele’s February 26 e-mail]. There is still some question regarding the cooler unit being moved to your location or left in place and a replacement provided for you. We can discuss that issue.
Please let me know if you work through a purchase order system or if we need to put together a sales agreement.
Is there a contract between Republic Bank and West Penn for the purchase of the medical equipment? Decide. Explain.