An uncle promised his nephew that he would pay him $5,000 if the nephew refrained from drinking, using tobacco, swearing, and playing cards or billiards for money until he turned 21. The nephew complied with those conditions. Afterward, the uncle acknowledged the debt and stated the money would remain with him to accrue interest. The uncle died without paying, and the nephew's assignee sued the executor to recover the promised sum.
Is a promise enforceable when the consideration consists of the promisee's voluntary forbearance from legal conduct at the promisor's request?
A waiver or forbearance of a legal right at the request of another is sufficient consideration for a promise. Consideration exists when the promisee restricts lawful freedom of action, even if the promisor receives no tangible economic benefit.
Yes. The nephew's forbearance from lawful activities constituted valid consideration, so the uncle's promise to pay $5,000 was enforceable.
The court rejected the view that consideration requires a benefit to the promisor and emphasized that a detriment to the promisee is enough. By giving up legal rights to drink, smoke, swear, and gamble, the nephew incurred a legal detriment at the uncle's request. That the nephew may have been morally or physically better off from abstaining did not negate consideration. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the order without opinion in the text provided, leaving in place the enforceability of the promise on that basis.
Hamer is a foundational contracts case for the proposition that consideration may consist of forbearance of legal rights and need not confer economic benefit on the promisor. It is commonly paired with cases distinguishing real consideration from nominal or illusory exchanges, such as Dougherty v. Salt, 227 N.Y. 200 (1919), and with modern reliance doctrine cases like Allegheny College v. National Chautauqua County Bank, 246 N.Y. 369 (1927). The case remains central in teaching the bargain theory's acceptance of legal detriment as sufficient consideration.
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