New Promise

A contract made, after the original promise has for some cause been rendered, invalid, by which the promiser agrees to fulfil such original promise.

When a debtor has been discharged under the bankrupt laws, the remedy against him is clearly gone, so when an infant has made a contract prejudicial to his interest he may avoid it; and when by lapse of time a debt is barred by the act of limitations the debtor may take advantage of the act, but in all these cases there remains a moral obligation, and if the original promiser renews the contract by a new promise this is a sufficient consideration.

Formerly the courts construed the slightest admission of the debtor as evidence of a new promise to pay; but of late years a more reasonable construction is put upon men's contracts and the promise must be express, or at least the acknowledgment of indebtedness must not be inconsistent with a promise to pay.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.