## Facts

- Joe Webb, an employee at a lumber mill, was clearing an upper floor by dropping heavy pine blocks to the ground below.
- As Webb was about to drop a block, he saw J. Greeley McGowin standing directly beneath where it would land and would likely be killed or seriously injured if Webb released it.
- To prevent harm to McGowin, Webb held the block and fell with it to divert its path, successfully avoiding injury to McGowin.
- Webb suffered severe injuries, including a broken leg and arm and substantial permanent disability, leaving him unable to perform physical or mental labor.
- About four months later, McGowin agreed to pay Webb $15 every two weeks for the rest of Webb’s life and made those payments for roughly eight years, until McGowin’s death.
- After McGowin died, the executors of his estate stopped making the payments, and Webb sued to recover unpaid installments and enforce the continuing obligation.

## Issues

1. Whether a promisor’s later promise to compensate a promisee for a past, unrequested life-saving act is supported by consideration when the promisor received a material benefit and the promisee suffered serious injury.
2. Whether “moral obligation” coupled with a material or pecuniary benefit can supply consideration sufficient to make the subsequent promise enforceable against the promisor’s estate.

## Decision

- The Alabama Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s sustaining of demurrers and the resulting judgment of nonsuit.
- The court held the amended complaint stated a cause of action because the promisor’s receipt of a material benefit made the subsequent promise enforceable.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings.
- The Alabama Supreme Court denied certiorari, leaving the appellate decision in effect.

## Legal Principles

- A past act is generally not consideration for a later promise, and a purely moral obligation alone does not create contractual liability.
- A subsequent promise may be enforceable when the promisee’s prior act conferred a substantial material or pecuniary benefit on the promisor, supporting the promise as supported by consideration.
- Preservation of a person’s life and bodily safety can constitute a material benefit with pecuniary value for consideration analysis.
- Serious detriment to the promisee incurred in conferring the benefit reinforces the existence of consideration supporting the later promise.
- A later promise to pay for services rendered may be treated as implying a prior request as a matter of law in appropriate circumstances, supporting enforcement.

## Conclusion

The court enforced a promisor’s later promise to make lifetime payments where the promisee’s earlier life-saving act conferred a concrete material benefit on the promisor and caused grave injury to the promisee, treating the resulting moral obligation as sufficient consideration to bind the promisor’s estate.


Webb v. McGowin, 27 Ala. App. 82, 168 So. 196 (Ala. Ct. App. 1935), cert. denied, 232 Ala. 374, 168 So. 199 (Ala. 1936)