Jenni entered into a September 28 agreement to sell Andrea $567,000 worth of steel scrap. The signed, written agreement specified delivery to take place on November 2 at Andrea's business in Omaha, Nebraska. On October 9, Jenni assigned her right to payment on the sale to 13th National Bank of Milwaukee in return for $560,000. On November 1, Jenni realized she did not have enough scrap to complete the delivery. She then contacted Walter, another scrap dealer, who said he agreed to deliver the quantity necessary. Because the price of scrap metal had fallen since September, Jenni only was required to pay $541,000 for the same weight of scrap. Jenni immediately paid Walter but did not discuss the matter with Andrea.
Walter offered to deliver the scrap on November 2 in Omaha. When Andrea saw the train cars arriving and realized the source was Walter, she refused to accept delivery of the cars full of good quality scrap metal. Andrea had a long standing, inter-personal dispute with Walter dating back to a 2004 deal between the two. After the 2004 transaction, Andrea had decided never to deal with "that two-faced, lying scum, Walter."
On November 15, 13th National Bank demanded payment of "our $567,000 payment for the steel." Andrea refused to make any payment as did Jenni when she was subsequently asked to pay the amount on Nov. 16.
In the subsequent litigation, the four parties sued each other. Please discuss each of the following claims:
a) Andrea claims she is not liable to pay any amount to 13th National Bank because "Jenni never offered to deliver the steel, I never ever dealt with Walter."
b) Jenni claims she is not liable to pay 13th National any money because, "I sold my account receivable to the 13th National for cash. It is now the bank's problem, they must get it from either Andrea or Walter."
c) Jenni also claims she is not in breach of contract with Andrea because she used Walter to deliver the scrap.