Allegheny College v. National Chautauqua County Bank

Facts

In June 1921, a drive was in progress to raise an additional endowment of $1,250,000 for Allegheny College, a school in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Mary Yates Johnston of Jamestown, New York, was asked to contribute. On June 15, 1921, she signed a writing called an "Estate Pledge." In it she subscribed and promised to pay the college's treasurer $5,000, in consideration of her interest in Christian education and of others subscribing. The pledge fell due thirty days after her death, and she told her executor to pay it out of her estate. On the back she wrote that the gift would be known as the Mary Yates Johnston Memorial Fund, and that its proceeds would educate students preparing for the ministry. She added that the pledge was valid only on the condition that the provisions of her will were first met. In December 1923, while she was alive, she paid $1,000 on account. The college set that money aside as a scholarship fund for students preparing for the ministry. In July 1924 she gave the college notice that she repudiated (rejected) the promise. After she died and thirty days passed, the college sued her executor, the bank, to recover the unpaid balance.

Issues

1. Was Johnston's promise to give $5,000 to the college supported by consideration (something given or promised in exchange), so that her executor could be made to pay the balance?
2. Did the college's acceptance of $1,000 on account, under a condition that the gift be known as a memorial fund bearing her name, create a duty that could count as consideration?

Holding

By accepting $1,000 on account of a subscription conditioned on a memorial bearing Johnston's name, the college impliedly promised to perpetuate her name. That duty was sufficient consideration, so the subscription was enforceable against her executor.