| A few things: 1. This is promissory estoppel for contracts. There are lots of types of estoppel, and not all are related at all to what this post is talking about. 2. This post misses a super important requirement for the examples it gives, which is that you have to detrimentally rely on the promise. Put another way - you have to have been injured (monetarily) by the promise to recover. Usually this means you did something in response to the promise that cost money and can't be undone easily. Being upset at pizza type would not cut it :) 3. The house example is wrong for another reason - promises/contracts to buy/sell houses must be in writing and signed to be enforceable (at least in the US). This is known as the statute of frauds.
If i promise you verbally to sell you a house, and later do not, it will generally not be enforced. (You may be able to recover something for detrimental reliance, but you will not be able to force me to sell you the house based on a verbal promise) Most states also apply this to certain other types of purchases/etc. |