CLASS 3 – consideration, estoppel and intention
Chen Wishart 96 to 104 AND 107-166
CONSIDERATION and ESTOPPEL = Combe v Combe
INTENTION = Balfour v Balfour
Combe v Combe
Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent,
or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the
person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from bringing a
particular claim.
Consideration in a contract is the exchange of anything of value by each
party. Most often, services or goods are exchanged or promised in
a contract, though consideration may be whatever the parties agree
to. Examples include: Money.
CONSIDERATION = PROMISE + PROMISE
“where one party
has, by his words or conduct, made to the other a promise or
assurance which was intended to affect the legal relations between
them and to be acted on accordingly, then, once the other party
has taken him at his word and acted on it, the party who gave the
promise or assurance cannot afterwards be allowed to revert to the
previous legal relationship as if no such promise or assurance had
been made by him, but he must accept their legal relations subject
to the qualification which he himself has so introduced, even
though it is not supported in point of law by any consideration, but
only by his word.”
The husband did not pay to his wife the payments he had promised, and, after the
lapse of seven years, the wife brought an action in the King's Bench Division on her
husband's promise to make those payments to her.
Held; there was no consideration for the husband’s promise: 1.) the wife had not
promised not to apply for maintenance to the Divorce Court, and (2.) even if she had
so promised, she could not have deprived herself of that right.
Balfour v Balfour
What is 'intention to create legal relations'? In its simplest form, intention to
create legal relations means that the parties must intend to enter into a legally
binding arrangement in which the rights and obligations of the agreement are
Chen Wishart 96 to 104 AND 107-166
CONSIDERATION and ESTOPPEL = Combe v Combe
INTENTION = Balfour v Balfour
Combe v Combe
Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent,
or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the
person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from bringing a
particular claim.
Consideration in a contract is the exchange of anything of value by each
party. Most often, services or goods are exchanged or promised in
a contract, though consideration may be whatever the parties agree
to. Examples include: Money.
CONSIDERATION = PROMISE + PROMISE
“where one party
has, by his words or conduct, made to the other a promise or
assurance which was intended to affect the legal relations between
them and to be acted on accordingly, then, once the other party
has taken him at his word and acted on it, the party who gave the
promise or assurance cannot afterwards be allowed to revert to the
previous legal relationship as if no such promise or assurance had
been made by him, but he must accept their legal relations subject
to the qualification which he himself has so introduced, even
though it is not supported in point of law by any consideration, but
only by his word.”
The husband did not pay to his wife the payments he had promised, and, after the
lapse of seven years, the wife brought an action in the King's Bench Division on her
husband's promise to make those payments to her.
Held; there was no consideration for the husband’s promise: 1.) the wife had not
promised not to apply for maintenance to the Divorce Court, and (2.) even if she had
so promised, she could not have deprived herself of that right.
Balfour v Balfour
What is 'intention to create legal relations'? In its simplest form, intention to
create legal relations means that the parties must intend to enter into a legally
binding arrangement in which the rights and obligations of the agreement are
