Congregation Kadimah Toras-Moshe v. DeLeo

Facts

The decedent suffered a prolonged illness. Throughout it, Rabbi Abraham Halbfinger, the spiritual leader of Congregation Kadimah Toras-Moshe, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, visited him. During four or five of those visits, with witnesses present, the decedent orally promised to give the Congregation $25,000. The Congregation planned to use the money to turn a storage room in the synagogue into a library named after the decedent. The promise was never put in writing. The decedent died intestate (without a will) in September, 1985. He had no children, but his wife survived him. Robert A. DeLeo was the administrator of his estate. The Congregation put the promised $25,000 in its budget for renovating the storage room. The Superior Court judge found that the pledge was oral and gratuitous, with no indication of how the money should be used or what the Congregation was required to do in return. The record held no evidence that the plan to name a library after the decedent led him to make or to renew the promise. The facts were not contested. The Congregation wanted the estate to pay the $25,000.

Issues

1. Was the decedent's oral promise to give the Congregation $25,000 an enforceable contract, because it was supported either by consideration and bargain or by reliance?
2. Even if the court applied section 90 of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, which dispenses with proof of induced action for a charitable subscription, would injustice be avoided only by enforcing this oral promise against the estate?

Holding

The decedent's oral promise to give the Congregation $25,000 was not enforceable against his estate. It had no consideration and no reliance. Even assuming Restatement section 90 applied, declining to enforce this unsupported oral promise against an estate caused no injustice, and enforcing it would be against public policy.