Explain the rule known as "The Rule in Pinnel's Case" and how it impacted upon the doctrine of consideration

Essay by sev111University, Bachelor'sA+, April 2006

download word file, 9 pages 0.0

Downloaded 58 times

Synopsis: This essay examines the rule knows as The Rule in Pinnel's Case and how it impacted upon the doctrine of consideration. It also examines the problems arising from the Rule in Pinnel's Case, the subsequent exceptions that were developed to circumvent the rule and in detail the most important exception of them; Promissory estoppel and how it solved the problem's arising from the Rule. The distinction between traditional estoppel and this new type of estoppel 'Promissory Estoppel' are also examined and how Promissory estoppel has been accepted in Australia.

A contract is an agreement that the law will enforce, a promise (or set of promises) that the courts will enforce, a legally enforceable contract . Many problems arise that require the examination of whether a contract exists. To resolve this, a useful formula is Offer + Acceptance = Agreement, and Agreement + Intention + Consideration = Contract. Consideration is defined by Sir Frederick Pollock as ' an act or forbearance of the one party, or the promise thereof, which is the price for which the promise of the other is bought, and the promise thus given for value is enforceable'.

The process outlined forms the vast majority of contracts. An offer is made by party A to party B; that offer (or some negotiated variation of it) is accepted by party B. Therefore an agreement exists. All of those components are necessary for a contract to exist. The type of contract that will be examined in this essay is one that is made between a Creditor (the party that lends out the money to the Debtor) and a Debtor (the party who borrows the money from the Creditor) It will also be examined how The Rule in Pinnel's Case was an unfair rule and how the problem arising...