Preview

Promissiory Estopel

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2594 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Promissiory Estopel
In High Tree’s Case the principle in use does not give rise to new causes of action if none existed before. It can only be used to prevent a party from ignoring his promise that he would not insist upon his strict legal rights. This essay mainly structures around this principle, ‘Promissory estoppel’ and highlights its basic requirements.
In the absence of a bargain, promissory estoppel and moral obligation are the only grounds upon which common law courts enforce promises. The principle of promissory estoppel came into existence to preclude the necessity for consideration in cases where parties are already bound contractually with each other and one of them promises to waive, alter or suspend its strict legal rights. The terms mean: Promissory; about a promise, assurance and Estoppel; comes from Latin, to stop. A clear cut definition for the doctrine was expressed by Denning LJ in Combe v Combe (1951) 2 KB 215 (CA).
The principle, as I understand it, is that, 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 his word and acted on it, the one who gave the 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 law on this principle derives from the case Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd (1947) KB 130. The plaintiffs were the owners of a block of flats in London, which they rented to the defendants at a rent of £2,500 pa. Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the defendants were unable to find sufficient tenants to take the flats, because of the large numbers of people leaving London. As a result the plaintiffs agreed that, in the circumstances, the rent could be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In week four’s theory practice, we reviewed the case scenario of Big Time Toymaker vs Chou in regards to determining the validity of a contract. As we’ve reviewed, an agreement or mutual assent is of course essential to a valid contract but the law imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of his words and acts. If his words and acts, judged by a reasonable standard, manifest an intention to agree, it is immaterial what may be the real but unexpressed state of his mind (Melvin, 2010).…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    PRETEST 2

    • 702 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the absence of a contact complete with offer, acceptance, and consideration, a court may enforce a promise under the principle of promissory estoppel where…

    • 702 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cheat Sheet

    • 3020 Words
    • 12 Pages

    3. promissory estoppel: a contract exists when a person reasonably relies upon a promise to his detriment…

    • 3020 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Contracts I Course Outline

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages

    1. A promise or apparent promise is not consideration if by its terms the promisor or…

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Business Law

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The courts will apply promissory estoppel when the promise would be substantially harmed if it were not enforced.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    TD Bank collateral mortgage

    • 9483 Words
    • 38 Pages

    Term paper TD Bank-Collateral Mortgage Course: BUSI2601D Instructor: J.L. Levasseur CUID: 100857079 Name: Daxia Shao Due Date: April 10th, 2013 Table of Content: Business Law term paper. ·Introduction 1.1 Objectives----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------p1 1.2 Methodology--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------p5 1.3 Ethical Issues--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------p9 1.4 Business Relationship---------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------p13 ·Clauses of Agreement 2.1 purpose of Clause--------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------P18 2.2 Consequence of Clause-------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------p20…

    • 9483 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    law of contract

    • 11627 Words
    • 47 Pages

    Facts: P is suing D for wasted expenditure arising from D’s breach of K to star in their production…

    • 11627 Words
    • 47 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overall there are three explicit foundations that constitute proprietary estoppel; assurance, reliance and detriment as stated in Thorner v Major and many subsequent cases, with all three needing to be in attendance for a proprietary estoppel claim. Moreover many argue that unconscionability sets a fourth requirement for a claim as stated in Gillet v Holt unconscionability is always found in a repudiation of an assurance. However it can be shown that although this concept may underline the doctrine, it is not in all cases powerful enough to constitute its own…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The issue in this case is whether S4H can recover the money from Newland. Promissory estoppel prevents a promisor from going back on his or her promise if the promisee relies on the promise to their detriment. It allows a party to recover on a promise and prevents the other party from arguing that his or her promise should not be upheld.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Now I am not stating that utilizing estoppel in contracts is illegal, because contract law is common law and therefore, judge made law, which means that judges for the most part can rule in whatever manner they decide. Albeit, precedent is followed as if it were written as a statute, but nevertheless under the common law, the law is not nearly as steadfast as it is with statutory law. I find the estoppel to be the pinnacle of this, I find the word “justice” to be the premise beyond estoppel. The idea is that, although there was no legitimate contract constructed, the party using the estoppel at some point, to his or her detriment, relied on the idea that the contract was enforceable, although it actually was not. I find this to be the judges way of using a similar premise to that official disobedience within contract law.…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Firstly certainty of words, this principle is that an expressed trust is created where the settlers shows an intention to do so .It is therefore important to show settlers intention rather than moral obligation.…

    • 2047 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The case of Fran and Octavia is a clear example that can explain the doctrine of promissory estoppel. In this scenario, Fran approaches Octavia to give him a room to conduct her business of storing her goods. She promises Octavia that indeed she will consider lending the house for her business deals. The warehouse had no functional extractor fan in which Fran requested Octavia to put in place. In the case, Octavia asked Fran to promise him that she will take the house before hiring the electrician to install the fan. He wanted to be sure before proceeding with the plan of installation, in which Fran gladly promised that he will take the warehouse. Octavia went ahead to hire the electrician as part of the…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    res judicata

    • 1262 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Huisman and Another v Lakie and Others, the court sets out the requirements for the granting of a special plea of res judicata which are that the dispute must involve the same parties, concern the same relief and the same cause of action.3 This defense originates from Roman Dutch law and is based and founded on public policy which requires that litigation should come to an end when the same matter has already been adjudicated upon in another forum.4These requirements are not cast in stone such that they may be relaxed in the case of a special plea for a court to apply res judicata in the form of issue estoppel. In Huisman’s case, the court averred that those common law requirements are sometimes relaxed to an extent and this development had its genesis in the case of Boshoff v Union Government, in which the ‘same cause of action’ requirement was relaxed to allow for the successful application of res judicata.5 The rule relating to these requirements has been extended in the case of issue estoppel which is a concept received from English law.6 In Smith v Porritt and others, the court asserted that where the circumstances justify the…

    • 1262 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Quasi-Contract Analysis

    • 3020 Words
    • 13 Pages

    On the off chance that a man takes my significant china vase he must provide for it back; and his obligation is precisely the same in the event that he takes my cash not for this situation to restore the indistinguishable money, which is immaterial, but to restore that number of units of buying power. Nobody has recommended an intimated contract in the criminal of the vase to provide for it back, and nobody would have recommended such an agreement in the criminal of the cash yet for the procedural preferences of Assumptions over Debt. Once more, if a man takes my significant china vase on contract he must provide for it once again with the measure of the contract; and in the event that he gets my cash he must give it again with the stipulated investment. The commitment to pay the contract alternately the investment is genuinely contractual, along these lines may be the way of the compensation; and in this occasion it was thought in the nine- tenth century that the bailey’s obligation of compensation is itself contractual, yet that was simply because the nineteenth century looked for a contractual premise for practically everything. On the off chance that there is an obligation to restore whether there be a guarantee or not, that implies that the guarantee even lf made is superfluous; and on the off chance that it is not made there is surely no compelling reason to intimate it. The genuine clarification of the obligation to restore is that I have a right that nobody might take what is mine: I may discharge that right for an alternate, whether contractually or needlessly, however at the expiry of the time for which I discharged it the past position re-develops, and I must have it back. As the obligation…

    • 3020 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Legal Research

    • 12000 Words
    • 48 Pages

    That principle of law by which an act done at one time is considered by a fiction of law to have been done at some antecedent period. It is a doctrine which, although of equitable origin, has a well-recognized application to proceedings at law; a legal fiction invented to promote the ends of justice or to prevent injustice end the occurrence of injuries where otherwise there would be no remedy. The doctrine, when invoked, must have connection with actual fact, must be based on some antecedent lawful rights. It has also been referred to as "the doctrine of relation back”.…

    • 12000 Words
    • 48 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics