Term
| True or false: Under the common law, most courts hold that a court-related oral admission by the party against whom enforcement is sought precludes that party's reliance on the Statute of Frauds. |
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Definition
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Term
| True or false: The part-performance doctrine is an exception to the Statute of Frauds that applies to any of the six classes of contracts within the Statute. |
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Definition
| False. It only applies to a contract for the sale of an interest in land. |
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Term
| What is the part-performance doctrine under the Statute of Frauds? |
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Definition
| A contract for the transfer of an interest in land may be specifically enforced notwithstanding failure to comply with the Statute of Frauds if it is established that the party seeking enforcement, in reasonable reliance on the contract and on the continuing assent of the party against whom enforcement is sought, has so changed position that injustice can be avoided only by specific enforcement. |
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Term
| True or false: If a contract for the sale of an interest in land is enforceable under the part-performance doctrine, the contract is enforceable even if it is also within another category of the Statute of Frauds and would have been unenforceable under that other category. |
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Definition
| True. This is an exception to the general rule that the various provisions of the Statute of Frauds apply separately. |
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Term
| What are the three principal (but not exclusive) factors that courts consider in deciding whether there has been sufficient part performance of a land-sale contract so as to create an exception to the Statute of Frauds? |
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Definition
| (1) delivery and assumption of actual or exclusive possession of the land; (2) payment or tender of consideration; and (3) the making of permanent, substantial, and valuable improvements on the land. |
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Term
| Is the payment of the full purchase price, in and of itself, sufficient to take a land-sale contract out of the Statute of Frauds? |
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Definition
| No, because restitution (i.e., a return of the purchase price) is an adequate remedy. |
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Term
| In what respect is the Statute of Frauds' part-performance doctrine misnamed? |
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Definition
| The reliance need not take the form of "performance" of the contract. |
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Term
| If a land-sale contract does not satisfy the Statute of Frauds, but the transfer of the interest in land is made (for example, delivery and acceptance of the deed), what happens? |
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Definition
| The promise to pay the purchase price becomes enforceable notwithstanding the Statute (unless the price is land). |
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Term
| A contract between adjacent landowners fixing a boundary line becomes enforceable notwithstanding the Statute of Frauds upon either of what two events? |
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Definition
| (1) The agreed boundary line has been marked; or (2) when the parties have recognized the boundary line in the subsequent use of the tracts. |
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Term
| A contract by joint tenants or tenants in common to partition land becomes enforceable notwithstanding the Statute of Frauds' land-sale provision upon what event? |
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Definition
| Possession of each tract is taken in accordance with the contract. |
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Term
| True or false: Part performance not amounting to full performance on one side does not in general take a contract out of the one-year provision of the Statute of Frauds. |
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Definition
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Term
| True or false: A contract in consideration of marriage is taken out of the Statute of Frauds' marriage provision upon the marriage taking place. |
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Definition
| False. An oral contract between prospective spouses made upon consideration of marriage does not become enforceable merely because the marriage has taken place on reliance on it, nor by virtue of subsequent action incident to the marriage relation, since a contrary rule would deprive the marriage provision of the Statute of any significant effect. |
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Term
| True or false: Part performance of a suretyship contract takes the contract out of the Statute of Frauds' suretyship provision. |
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Definition
| False. Jurisdictions have rejected the part-performance doctrine for suretyship contracts because neither partial nor even full performance by the creditor enriches the promisor. |
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Term
| True or false: A party's full performance takes the contract out of the Statute of Frauds' one-year provision irrespective of whether the party's full performance occurred within a year of contract formation. |
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Definition
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Term
| True or false: Under the traditional rule, a promissory estoppel claim is subject to the Statute of Frauds. |
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Definition
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Term
| True or false: Under the modern rule, a promissory estoppel claim is not subject to the Statute of Frauds. |
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Definition
| True. Under the modern rule, a promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action or forbearance on the part of the promisee and which does induce the action or forbearance is enforceable notwithstanding the Statute of Frauds if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise. |
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Term
| Under the modern rule, when a court decides whether the elements of promissory estoppel are established and whether injustice will occur if a promise is not enforced despite the Statute of Frauds, what factors does the court consider? |
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Definition
| (1) The availability and adequacy of other remedies, including restitution; (2) the definite and substantial character of the reliance; (3) the extent to which the reliance corroborates the making and terms of the promise or whether the making and terms are otherwise established by clear and convincing evidence; (4) the reasonableness of the reliance; and (5) the extent to which the reliance was foreseeable. |
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Term
| Under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, a party will be estopped (i.e., precluded) from relying on the Statute of Frauds as a defense if the party misrepresented what (and the other party reasonably relied on the misrepresentation)? |
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Definition
| (1) his or her intention to produce a signed writing; (2) that a signed writing has been produced; or (3) his or her intention not to rely on the Statute of Frauds. |
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Term
| True or false: A quasi-contract claim is subject to the Statute of Frauds. |
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Definition
| False. Such a claim does not seek to enforce the actual contract and is thus not barred by the Statute of Frauds. |
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