Definition
Meritorious consideration is a class of consideration grounded in moral obligation rather than legal obligation or direct economic exchange. It arises when a promisor is motivated by a pre-existing moral duty — such as gratitude, natural affection, or a sense of honor — rather than by a bargained-for exchange. Classic examples include promises made in recognition of a past benefit received, promises to provide for a child born outside marriage, or promises to compensate someone who rendered aid without a legal right to demand payment.
Meritorious consideration occupies a subordinate position in contract law's hierarchy of consideration. It is sometimes called "consideration in the second degree" to distinguish it from valuable consideration — the kind courts fully enforce — and to separate it from mere good consideration (such as natural love and affection), which courts treat with even less legal force. The practical consequence is that a promise supported only by meritorious consideration is generally unenforceable at law, though equity has occasionally given it more favorable treatment.
Common Confusion
Meritorious consideration is easily confused with two neighboring concepts: good consideration and past consideration.
Good consideration (also called good and sufficient consideration in older usage) refers to natural love and affection — a category that courts, particularly at law, decline to treat as adequate to support a binding promise. Meritorious consideration is distinct: it rests on moral obligation arising from a specific prior benefit or duty, not merely on familial sentiment.
Past consideration is a promise made in return for something already fully performed before the promise was given. Meritorious consideration overlaps with past consideration when the prior act was one the promisor was morally but not legally obligated to recognize. The two are not synonymous, however: past consideration is a chronological problem (the exchange sequence is wrong), while meritorious consideration is a qualitative problem (the motivating obligation is moral rather than legal). A promise may involve both defects simultaneously.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter meritorious consideration primarily in two contexts: older equity cases and the moral obligation doctrine debate.
In equity, courts were historically more receptive to enforcing promises supported by meritorious consideration, particularly when the promisee had relied on the promise or when the promise involved a natural duty of support. Chancery's willingness to act where courts of law would not means that the enforceability of a promise backed by meritorious consideration can depend entirely on whether you are reading a law reporter or an equity reporter. Conflating the two tracks produces misleading conclusions about the doctrine.
The moral obligation rule — associated with the principle that a prior moral obligation can constitute sufficient consideration — is the modern doctrinal descendant of meritorious consideration. Some jurisdictions have codified or judicially expanded this doctrine; others reject it almost entirely. When researching the enforceability of promises grounded in past benefits or moral duties, the term "meritorious consideration" will appear in older cases and treatises, while modern materials are more likely to use "moral obligation" or "material benefit rule." Researchers tracing doctrine across time must bridge this terminological gap.
The term also surfaces in succession and family law contexts — wills, voluntary settlements, and inter vivos transfers — where courts assessed whether a transfer was supported by valuable, good, or merely meritorious consideration. The classification mattered for priority among creditors and bona fide purchasers, especially in fraudulent conveyance analysis.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines meritorious consideration as "one founded upon some moral obligation; a valuable consideration in the second degree." This formulation is compact but instructive: the phrase "second degree" signals relative legal weight rather than a binary valid/invalid distinction.
Older treatise literature — including Kent's Commentaries and Story's equity writings — addressed meritorious consideration in the context of voluntary settlements and the doctrine of a court of equity completing an imperfect gift. These sources make clear that while equity might act on meritorious consideration in limited circumstances, it would not do so against a competing claim of valuable consideration. The Black's entry captures the conclusion but omits this equity-versus-law nuance, which is essential for understanding how the doctrine actually operated in practice.
Historical sources are largely silent on what counts as a sufficiently "moral" obligation to qualify. The line between a moral obligation strong enough to constitute meritorious consideration and a sentiment too vague to qualify was drawn case by case, making historical research on this point highly fact-specific.
Jurisdictional Note
The moral obligation doctrine — the functional successor to meritorious consideration — varies significantly by jurisdiction. A minority of states, following the material benefit rule, will enforce promises made in recognition of a prior unrequested benefit that unjustly enriched the promisor. Most states remain skeptical. Researchers should not assume that a case enforcing a morally obligated promise in one jurisdiction reflects a general rule.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Contracts — Adequacy of Consideration and Nominal Consideration (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)
Contracts — Past Consideration and Moral Obligation (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)