As we apply the elements here, one of the elements is that the promisee must have acted reasonably before he received the promise. Did Brian act reasonably? Yes or no, and explain.

So you've got some idea how promissory estoppel may be used as a kind of substitute for consideration and perhaps even more than that, how it gives another weapon to the court, to the judge, to sort of get to the result that he wants, even though the technicalities of the law may get in the way.

So let's play with this a little. Let's see, [? Brian, ?] I'm your uncle, and I'm just worried about you. Look at you. You're working so hard. You got this day job. You're involved in this MBA thing, and you're going to school, and you've got papers. And life's short. Maybe you're a young guy. You don't see it, but it's going by fast.

Luckily, I got a lot of money, and I'd just like to lighten your load a little. So [SIGHS] on your next birthday-- better yet, end of the year-- I am now promising you $750,000. Happy birthday. Happy New Year. Happy Christmas. Happy whatever it is.

So all of a sudden, your whole perspective changes. First thing that Brian does is he gets out of this program. Yes, he's paid a lot of tuition, but all this stuff online, all this work you're doing, it's just too much. So you forget about it. You burn your bridges here.

And you decide that winter is coming, and you really need to get out of town and relax. You give up your job. You give up your school. Where would you like to go? Dream big.

Maybe St. Barts.

St. Barts, oh, its very nice this time of the winter. You really ought to bring a yacht, but you don't have a yacht, because if you're going to have a yacht in St. Barts, it's got to be a big yacht. It would be embarrassing to have a small yacht in St. Barts.

But in any event, you get a villa. Better yet, up on the hills, you can see the yachts from your villa. And, well, you're going to need a cook. And you're going to need a pool guy. And you're going to need some scuba equipment, because you're going to take up scuba. Oh, and you're going to need a scuba instructor.

Oh, and you're going to need something to drive, because to get up to this villa, it's a winding road. You need something that's going to handle well. You've got some idea what would be-- you'd look OK on in St. Barts?

Maybe a Tesla.

A Tesla. OK, fine, that would work. So we've got a Tesla. We've got a villa. We've got the-- OK, we're getting there. So you're just sitting there waiting for the money, $750,000 to arrive in your bank account so you can pay all these bills. And, well, I guess you know what's coming. I don't give it to you. Now have I breached a contract?

Sounds like it.

Yeah, it sounds like it.

You promised [? Brian ?] the money. I promised [? Brian ?] the money.

You didn't give it to him.

I crossed my heart. I hoped to die. I spit. Is that what we need in law?

It also sounds kind of like a gift too.

It sounds like a gift. What am I getting in exchange? What bargain for legal benefit am I getting in exchange for [? Brian's-- ?] for this promise that I made to give him $750,000?

Have you given [? Brian ?] money before, thought?

No. No, but I'm not giving anything. There is no so that. There is no-- but you, on the other hand, have suffered substantial detriment. You have to pay all this rent. You've got to pay the pool boy. You've got the scuba, all that stuff. You got the payments, so you got to-- you bought this car that you now can't afford.

And for god's sake, it's on St. Barts. So you got some problems here, economically. But was there a so that? Did I say, if you go to St. Barts, if you leave the MBA program, if you quit your job and spend the winter in St. Barts? No. But you did those things.

So the traditional notions of-- if we go down the four steps, we will come to the conclusion there is no bargain for legal benefit to the promissor. There is no bargain for the legal benefit to the promisee. And consequently, there is no consideration.

But wouldn't it be unfair for me to be able to make that promise, have Brian spend all this darn money, and then not pay it? Sure, it would. Sure, it would. So [? Quinton-- ?] in fact, if I may, let's make you the judge. Yeah. Yeah, that's right, tuck them in.

Judge [? Quinton, ?] Your Honor, can you do something about this? Well, this is the example of promissory estoppel. Remember we said that in promissory estoppel, there is no consideration, but we can think of this as the fifth step. Should promissory estoppel perhaps be applicable to this situation?

But there's really no standards here. I mentioned [? Corbett ?] in contract says there should be these three standards, that maybe we have some test on this. Remember, three elements that we might look for here, why don't we apply those three elements and see how they might apply to this situation? And then we'll get an opinion from Judge [? Quinton. ?] You work on that.