White v Bluett (1853) CONSIDERATION: Sufficiency of Consideration

Bluett had given his father a promissory note for money that his father had lent him. (A promissory note is a promise to pay contained in a written document, e.g. a banknote.) His father's executor sued Bluett on the note, and he claimed in his defence that his father had promised to discharge him from the obligation if he would stop complaining about the father's distribution of his property among his children.

Held: Bluett had not provided any consideration for such a promise by his father; Bluett was under no legal duty to refrain from complaining and therefore his forbearance could not amount to consideration.

POLLOCK CB: If such a plea…