[stordoff]

$1 is probably a peppercorn payment[1]. A contract for 0€ may well fail to be a valid contract due to a lack of consideration - both sides must offer something of value to the other for a contract to be binding.

It's possible that the rest of the settlement would provide valid consideration, but a nominal payment removes any doubt from the situation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercorn_(legal)

[fsckboy]

a settlement is not a contract

[freejazz]

Settlement agreements are contracts. No one would agree (hmm, funny word, right) to a settlement if it wasn't legally binding.

[JamisonM]

Seems wild to me to assert that a settlement is not a contract. What is the basis for this?

[freejazz]

Peppercorn payments don't actually happen in the real world. Consideration is never an issue in actual contract litigation and in this case, settling something in exchange for any other benefit (no countersuit, etc) would suffice as consideration.

[jonas21]

I can report that they do actually happen in the real world. I've signed two contracts in the past year that had consideration of $1 written into them (and actually made the $1 payment). Are they necessary? I have no idea, but real lawyers wrote the contracts and apparently thought it was good to have that in there.

[dunham]

There is also a Feynman anecdote about this (wherein he demanded the dollar that they neglected to pay him):

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7277192-anyway-smith-told-m...

[ineedasername]

Clearly those real lawyers were just trying to milk you for their % contingency fee on that $1.

[randomswede]

I have a land lease that is literally a peppercorn per year in lease fee.

[denton-scratch]

Literally? You mean you have to buy a bag of peppercorns, and hand over one of them?

[billpg]

If whoever-it-is actually demands their peppercorn, yes.

[randomswede]

I offered to come by the leaser's office and hand over enough peppercorns to cover the entire lease period. They declined.

[freejazz]

Sure, there are plenty of bad attorneys.