Today in History: Ricketts v. Scothorn

On this date, December 8, 1898, the Nebraska Supreme Court issued its opinion in Ricketts v. Scothorn, 57 Neb. 51 (1898).

In the case, as all first-year law students know, young Katie Scothorn is working as a bookkeeper in a store, when her grandfather shows up.  Distressed that any granddaughter of his should actually work for a living, he gives her a promissory note for $2,000 at 6 percent a year, telling her that, in effect, she no longer must soil her hands with sordid trade.  She quits her job.  But 6 percent interest on $2,000 ($60 a year) isn’t really enough to live on even in 1891, so she goes back to work.  Granddad subsequently dies before paying the money, and she sues the executor.

The court might have held that when one makes a gift of a promissory note, the gift is complete and the giver must make it good.  But that would be too simple.  Instead, the court holds that the promise was enforceable under contract law because Katie relied on it — leaving open the rather absurd result that if she’d continued being a productive citizen she wouldn’t have got the money at all.  It does make for a good teaching case, though.

[Frank Snyder]