{"id":798,"date":"2013-07-19T13:27:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T13:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/"},"modified":"2013-07-19T13:27:49","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T13:27:49","slug":"giving-consideration-due-consideration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Consideration Due Consideration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People enter into contracts with each other for self interested reasons; each hopes to gain something from the other.\u00a0 Employees give their labor and time to employers in exchange for a salary.\u00a0 Retailers give their products to customers in exchange for money.\u00a0\u00a0 Lenders give borrowers lump sums of money upfront in exchange for larger sums paid out over time.\u00a0 Like a two-way street, there is something of value flowing in both directions.\u00a0 In legal parlance, this bargained for mutual exchange is known as <em>consideration<\/em>.\u00a0 Without mutual consideration, there is no enforceable contract.\u00a0 In most instances, a unilateral promise is unenforceable, even if broken.<\/p>\n<p>A 2013 decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals highlights the importance of documenting the mutual consideration that supports a contractual relationship with specificity. In <span>Nash v. Township Invs., LLC<\/span>, Metropolitan Land Development and Investments, LLC borrowed about $475,000.00 from Township Investments, LLC.\u00a0 Norman Nash, Metropolitan\u2019s CEO, signed the loan documents on behalf of Metropolitan and also personally guaranteed the repayment of the debt.\u00a0 The debt and the guarantee were renewed several times with Metropolitan\u2019s debt eventually growing to more than $670,000.00.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2008, Norman Nash and Norris Nash signed a $478,800.00 promissory note in favor of Township.\u00a0 That note made no mention of Metropolitan or any prior indebtedness.\u00a0 When Norman and Norris defaulted on the note, Township sued them.<\/p>\n<p>In their defense, the Nashes claimed that there was no consideration for the promise to pay Township $478,800.00; in other words, Township never gave the Nashes $478,800.00 or anything else in exchange for their promise to pay. \u00a0Norman and Norris argued that because consideration was lacking, the note was unenforceable.\u00a0 For its part, Township argued that the consideration for the Nashes\u2019 note was Township\u2019s forgiveness of Metropolitan\u2019s $670,000.00 debt. Yet, the Nashes\u2019 note made no mention of Metropolitan or the forgiveness of $670,000.00.<\/p>\n<p>Because the Nashes\u2019 note did not specify on its face what consideration the Nashes were to receive, Township was unable to obtain a judgment against the Nashes in summary fashion.\u00a0 Instead, a full trial would be necessary to determine what consideration, if any, Township gave to the Nashes in exchange for their promise to pay.\u00a0 While it is unlikely that the Nashes signed a $475,000.00 promissory note in favor of Township \u201cjust because\u201d, the omission from that note of a description of any consideration that the \u00a0Nashes did receive left the enforceability of the note in question and prevented Township from receiving a prompt resolution in its favor.<\/p>\n<p>While it is not uncommon for a business relationship such as the one between Metropolitan, Township and the Nashes to morph over time, it is important to be fastidious in memorializing the evolving nature of the relationship.\u00a0 Giving due consideration to these details (and spending some time with experienced counsel) on the front end can save a big (costly) headache and a trip to the courthouse down the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People enter into contracts with each other for self interested reasons; each hopes to gain something from the other.\u00a0 Employees give their labor and time to employers in exchange for a salary.\u00a0 Retailers give their products to customers in exchange for money.\u00a0\u00a0 Lenders give borrowers lump sums of money upfront in exchange for larger sums [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[27],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Giving Consideration Due Consideration - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giving Consideration Due Consideration - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"People enter into contracts with each other for self interested reasons; each hopes to gain something from the other.\u00a0 Employees give their labor and time to employers in exchange for a salary.\u00a0 Retailers give their products to customers in exchange for money.\u00a0\u00a0 Lenders give borrowers lump sums of money upfront in exchange for larger sums [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-19T13:27:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"William Piercy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"William Piercy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/\",\"name\":\"Giving Consideration Due Consideration - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-19T13:27:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-19T13:27:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1948d1b4ae45b0684d6f37e0f5c35649\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Giving Consideration Due Consideration\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"description\":\"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1948d1b4ae45b0684d6f37e0f5c35649\",\"name\":\"William Piercy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"William Piercy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/william-piercy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Giving Consideration Due Consideration - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Giving Consideration Due Consideration - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","og_description":"People enter into contracts with each other for self interested reasons; each hopes to gain something from the other.\u00a0 Employees give their labor and time to employers in exchange for a salary.\u00a0 Retailers give their products to customers in exchange for money.\u00a0\u00a0 Lenders give borrowers lump sums of money upfront in exchange for larger sums [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/","og_site_name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","article_published_time":"2013-07-19T13:27:49+00:00","author":"William Piercy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"William Piercy","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/","name":"Giving Consideration Due Consideration - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-19T13:27:49+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-19T13:27:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1948d1b4ae45b0684d6f37e0f5c35649"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/giving-consideration-due-consideration\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Giving Consideration Due Consideration"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","description":"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1948d1b4ae45b0684d6f37e0f5c35649","name":"William Piercy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"William Piercy"},"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/william-piercy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}