Aunt Annette and Nephew Ned both live in Louisiana where the drinking age is 18. Annette is concerned that Ned, who is 19, will get into trouble if he drinks while he is still a young man. She offers to pay him $1,000 if he will promise not to drink until he is 21. Ned agrees, and abstains from drinking until his 21st birthday, when he downs 11 "tequila fanny-bangers" at a local bar. After he sobers up, can he force his aunt to pay him the $1000?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

We start by restating the scenario and examining what each answer option asserts about consideration in a contract.

Option a: 'Yes, because his forbearance constitutes valid consideration.' This claims that Ned’s promise to abstain from drinking until 21 is valid consideration for Aunt Annette’s $1,000. The key question is whether Ned’s forbearance from drinking (an act he would be legally allowed to do at 21 but not before) constitutes a forbearance of a legal right. In contract law, forbearance must involve giving up a legal right. Since Ned’s intended action—drinking before age 21—is illegal, one could argue he did not have a lawful right to drink in the first place. Therefore, his forbearance may not constitute valid consideration. This makes Option a questionable as a universally correct answer.

Option b: 'No, because he violated the spirit of the agreement by getting drunk on his 21st birthday.' This emphasizes a moral or practical breach rather than a formal contract-law defect. The legality of consideration hinges on exchange and legality of the forbearance, not on the party’s voluntary behavior after the fact. The act of drinking on his 21st birthday does not automatically invalidate the contract or the validity of prior forbearance as consideration, so this justification is weak from a contract-law perspective.

Option c: 'Yes, because he committed a legal act that is valid consideration.' This mischaracterizes the situation: the act Ned committed (drinking) occurred after the forbearance period, and the forbearance itself is the alleged consideration. The drinking itself is not the act of consideration; rather, the question is whether abstaining from drinking was valid consideration. Since Ned’s abstention is tied to an illegal pre-21 activity, labeling the abstention as a 'legal act' that serves as consideration is incorrect.

Option d: 'No, because he gave no legal consideration.' This aligns with the principle that forbearance must involve giving up a legal right. Ned’s restraint from drinking prior to turning 21 involves refraining from an illegal act. Since the act he would be forbearant to undertake (drinking before 21) is illegal, Ned’s abstention does not constitute legal consideration for Aunt Annette’s promise. Hence, there is no valid consideration to support a binding promise to pay $1,000 under typical contract doctrine.

Collectively, the analysis shows that the core issue is whether forbearance from an illegal act can be consideration. The strongest interpretation is that Ned’s abstention from drinking before age 21 does not amount to valid legal consideration, leading to the conclusion in Option d. The other options either misstate the nature of consideration or rely on an incorrect premise about legality or the role of the forbearance.

MCD2070 - T3 - 2025 Intention and Consideration Quiz

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