An Alternative Basis For Enforcing Promises

8) Chris promises Dina $40,000 if she graduates from Eagle College. Dina enrolls in Eagle, attends full-time for four years, and graduates. When Dina asks Chris for $40,000, Chris says, “I don’t remember promising you $40,000. But if there was a promise, it’s not enforceable, because we didn’t bargain for it. And even if there was a promise that would otherwise be enforceable, I revoke it now.” Can Dina enforce Chris’s “promise”? Why or why

Both parties must be bound.” Both parties must be required to perform under the contract, “in other words, it must be enforceable originally, or not at all.” Sayres v. Wheatland Group, L.L.C., 79 Va. Cir. 504 (Va. Cir. Ct. 2009). As stated by The Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia "if it appears that one party was never bound on its part to do the acts which form the consideration for the promise of the other, there is a lack of mutuality of obligation and the other party is not bound." Busman v. Beeren & Barry Invs., LLC, 69 Va. Cir. 375 (Va. Cir. Ct. 2005).

A’s promise to B can only be enforced by B if B has given consideration for that promise;

A contract is a legally obligatory promise or set of promises (Bagley, C. 2013). If this promise is broken, either party involved can be legally responsible and take the other party to court. There are four basic elements in the creation of a valid contract. The first consist of an agreement between the parties involved, by an presented offer and acceptance. The second states that the parties’ promises must be supported by something of worth, known as consideration. The third advises both parties must have the ability to enter into a contract. The fourth element states the contract must have a legal purpose (Bagley, C 2013).

A contract is an enforceable promise between parties. The parties to any contract must perform according to the relevant and required standards. This includes substantial performance of the services promised, complete or strict performance and personal satisfaction. Failure to perform as required is a breach, which is a compensable injury. Several defenses exist as a result of contract breach. This may include, statute of limitation, statute of frauds requirement for writing, fraud, mistake done during contract performance, lack of good capacity and unconscious ability.

A contract is a bargain which two or more parties entered into voluntarily with a lawful object, each of whom intends to create one or more legal responsibility between them in law. Thus, a contract may be formed when two or more parties each promise to perform or to refrain from performing a little action now or in the future. (Boston, T. 1779) What is more, contract law shows what promises or commitments our society believes should be legally binding. Similarly, Professor Arthur Corbin's (1874–1967) famous first axiom of contract law is that the main purpose of law is the realization of reasonable expectations induced by promises. Hence, comments demonstrate that the purpose of contract law is to protect legal promises or commitments between two or more parties which build a

A contract is a promise between two or more parties that the law recognizes as binding by providing a remedy in the event of breach. In order for a promise to be enforceable it must be supported by consideration. Consideration can be defined as a bargained for exchange between the promisor and promisee; a promise can not be considered a contract without consideration. Common law states also require mutual assent to exist for a contract to be enforceable, this means that there must be an offer and an acceptance of said offer. For example, if a promise is made between two consenting people and one of those

The following case American Agricultural Chemical Co. v. Kennedy & Crawford, 103 Va. 171 (Va.1904) it is expressed that; where the consideration for the promise of one party is the promise of the other party, there must be absolute mutuality of engagement, so that each party has the right to hold the other to a positive agreement. Both parties must be bound or neither is bound. A party making a promise is bound to nothing until a promisee, within a reasonable time, engages to do, or else do or begins to do, the thing which is the condition of the first promise. Until such engagement or such doing, the promisor may withdraw his promise, because there is no mutuality, and therefore no consideration for it.

Non-contractual promise or representation is a promise or representation made during contractual negotiations that was not intended to be a term of the contract and it is not enforceable under contract law but is enforceable under promissory estoppel which is a principle that a promise will be legally enforceable even if consideration for the promise was not provided by the promise so long as some requirements are satisfied (James, 2014, p301)

A contract in its essence according to Davitt is “a union of two or more persons, originating in their mutual promises enforceable in law, for the reordering of their relations of title, duty and claim regarding something to be done or not to be done.” Id. at 273. The tricky part concerns what a mutual promise enforceable in law entails. As stated above, there are many difference schools of thought about what fills in the gaps of promises and what is enforceable by law.

For a promise to constitute consideration, the promise must impose an obligation on the person making it.

However, consideration is a concept that has no real equivalent in French contract law. According to the Common Law systems, a promise is only biding when there is something in return.

There are exceptions to consideration requirements. The first exception is promissory estoppel. Which is when a person that has “substantially relied on the promise of another may be able to obtain some measure of recovery” (Miller, 258). The second execution is when someone promises

of an agreement, for a party that breaks a contract may be sued in court for the

In the article “Consideration - in Acceptance of Contract”， this support Robert’s (2015) evidence that if an act is performed then a subsequent promise to pay by reference to that act is not enforceable as the consideration was past. Other that, he also noted that if there was an implication; the past promise to pay is enforceable.