The plaintiff cared for the defendant's adult son after the son fell sick among strangers on his return from a foreign country. The plaintiff gave the son shelter and comfort until he died, but did so without any request from the defendant. After learning of these events, the defendant wrote and promised to pay the plaintiff for the expenses incurred. The son was twenty-five years old, had long left his father's family, and was not under the defendant's care.
Issue
Is a father's written promise to reimburse a plaintiff for expenses incurred in caring for the father's adult son enforceable when the services were rendered without the father's request and the only asserted basis is moral obligation?
Rule
A mere verbal or gratuitous promise without consideration is not enforceable. Moral obligation is sufficient to support an express promise only in limited cases where some preexisting obligation, founded on an antecedent valuable consideration, once existed but has become inoperative by positive law; a promise based only on a moral duty to pay for benefits previously conferred without request is a naked pact and unenforceable.
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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.
In Portland, Maine, Naomi Reed found Evan Cole, a 28-year-old traveler, unconscious outside her boardinghouse during a blizzard. She paid for his physician and lodging for four days without contacting his mother, Lydia Cole in Vermont; after learning what Naomi had done, Lydia mailed Naomi a signed letter promising to repay all expenses.
Is Lydia's promise most likely enforceable?
Explanation. The promise is unenforceable. Under the majority rule, a later express promise is not supported merely by moral obligation when the benefit was previously conferred without the promisor's request and no prior legal obligation existed. A writing alone does not create consideration. Because Evan was an adult and Lydia had no preexisting legal duty shown, her promise is a naked pact rather than the revival of an antecedent obligation founded on valuable consideration.