CONTRACTS--MODERN RULES AS TO PAST CONSIDERATION FURNISHED AT REQUEST

Authors

Abstract

Very early in the history of contract law it was recognized that goods delivered or services rendered in the past could not furnish valid consideration for a present promise, for there was no quid pro quo, no element of exchange. But the equities in favor of the promisee in such cases, in view of the fact that assumpsit would lie only on an express promise, were frequently so strong that in 1615 we find an exception created. Lampleigh v. Brathwait, Hobart 105, held, that if the past services or goods had been furnished at request, the present promise would relate back to and include the request so. that the exchange would be complete. This doctrine was not, however, so limited as to include only such cases as would today give rise to an action on an implied or tacit promise. Likewise at that time an action was allowed on a present promise to pay a precedent debt. 1 WILLISTON ON CONTRACTS, §99. The history of Lord Mansfield's attempt in Lee v. Muggeridge, 5 Taunt. 36 to do away with this obvious fiction and to substitute the doctrine of moral consideration in its place, and of the final defeat of that doctrine in Eastwood v. Kenyon, 11 Ad. & E. 438 is well known. But the actual working rules today have almost as many variations as there are jurisdictions.

Recommended Citation

CONTRACTS--MODERN RULES AS TO PAST CONSIDERATION FURNISHED AT REQUEST, 22 Mich. L. Rev. 713 (1924).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol22/iss7/6