Loring v. City of Boston

Boston (defendant) advertised a $1,000 reward for catching and convicting an arsonist during a wave of fires in 1837, running the ad for only a week; when Loring (plaintiff) apprehended and secured the conviction of a suspected arsonist roughly three years and eight months later, after the wave of fires had long since subsided, he sued the city for the reward, and the city argued the offer had lapsed given the emergency context in which it was made and its brief advertising run.