Good and valuable consideration

Posted by Lewis on October 17, 2003

In Reply to: Meaning of "for good and valuable consideration..." posted by Wojtek on October 17, 2003

: Could someone, please, explain the meaning of following phrase to me? It is taken for the formal agreement and refers to the terms of the contract.

: For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged.

In contract law, for there to be a binding contract, certain conditions must be met [offer, acceptance, consideration and the intention to create a binding agreement + general legality of the trade]. Also in certain other legal contexts, G&VC needs to exist. In the context of law 'consideration' means some trade-off, the 'good and valuable' part means that the trade must be for something of worth (valuable) and also something permitted (good). The whole phrase means something along the lines of 'in exchange for a trade-off against something legally acceptable and of appreciable worth'.

Money of the country in which the transaction takes place is the most obvious thing to satisfy the G&VC test, but doing something or refraining from doing something that one had the right to do can also count.

[There are some things that cannot count as being 'good' consideration for public policy reasons.]

• Good and valuable consideration pdianek 18/October/03