Promissory Estoppel Essay

505 Words3 Pages
Promissory estoppel is an important doctrine in contract law in which a non contractual promise lacking consideration rendered enforceable to avoid an injustice. Promissory estoppel arises when injustice can be avoided only by means of the enforcement of a promise that would otherwise be unenforceable for lack of consideration. It is usually applied in cases in which a party has relied on another party’s promise, and that party’s nonbinding promise will be enforced because to do otherwise would be unfair. Promissory estoppel is commonly used in the context of charitable donations. In some jurisdictions the charity must have reliance on the promise but in others reliance is not necessary. The concept of quasi contract is somewhat similar in that such contracts have the same effect of enforcing a promise in order to avoid an unjust result, however in such cases there had been no promise in the first place. One case in which the court applied the doctrine to render a contract otherwise lacking in consideration enforceable was McIntosh v. Murphy. That case involved a verbal agreement to hire the plaintiff at the defendant’s auto dealership in Hawaii for one year. After moving all the way to Hawaii he was fired two month later. The court found in favor of the plaintiff because he had relied on the promise of the defendant and had rendered part performance. In Miller v. Lawlor, the court concluded that it was not necessary to determine the relative applicability of the doctrines of part performance versus estoppel because it was not necessary to distinguish them. The court in that case noted that other courts had recognized that promissory estoppel had become recognized as another form of consideration or consideration substitute. The court ultimately held that the language in the contract was sufficient to support a finding that the contract was enforceable via
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