Ch. 15 (courtesy of T-Man)

Fact

- a court will enforce one party's promise only if the other party promised some consideration in exchange - for example, in a bilateral contract, the consideration for each promise is a return promise - in a unilateral contract, one party's consideration is the promise and the other party's is the act

Past consideration

- a promise cannot be based on consideration provided before the promise was made - ex: you doing a great job at work, and after this your boss says because of your hard work in the past he will give you company stock. he is not obliged to actually give you it - past consideration is no consideration at all

Promissory estoppel

- an exception to the rule requiring consideration - occurs when 3 conditions are met 1) one party makes a promise and either knows or should know that the other party will reasonably rely on it 2) the other party does reasonably rely on the promise 3) the only way to avoid injustice is to enforce the promise

Illusory promise

- not a consideration - situation in which a party appears to commit to something but in reality has not committed to anything

Contract under seal

- second exception to the rule requiring consideration

Preexisting duty

two parts - performance of a duty you are obligated to do under the law is not a good consideration - performance of an existing contractual duty is not a good consideration