A complex situation has arisen with respect to the two most generally available extrinsic elements, the seal and the payment of a nominal consideration.
A common-law court, for example, may enforce a gift promise in which the element of reliance was present in addition to a seal or a nominal consideration.
Other extrinsic elements, either alone or in combination with reliance, a seal, or a nominal consideration, may also render a transaction enforceable.
It is well established that a writing (deed) is necessary for the transfer of title to real estate; it is common for deeds to recite at least nominal consideration, but no preliminary contract is required for title to pass.
Civil-law systems have less need than the common law for a formality such as nominal consideration; they prescribe methods directly in their statutes.
With all that in mind, he threw Wilpon his very fat pitch: you give Steinbrenner Staten Island, he'll give you Brooklyn, and the city will build small ballparks for each of you, design them to your specifications and rent them to you on long-term leases for nominal considerations.
Nominal consideration is a subtle and ingenious formality.
Common-law courts often accept nominal consideration when used in a business context, such as in an option arrangement or a compromise agreement; its effectiveness is understandably more doubtful in the context of a gift promise, since such a transaction involves greater dangers for one party and is socially more marginal.
Conceived as a Thomson vehicle, Have You Seen? was always going to be as much about the author strutting his stuff as it was about the stuff under nominal consideration.
