University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1987 Promissory Estoppel Damages Mary E. Becker Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Mary E. Becker, "Promissory Estoppel Damages," 16 Hofstra Law Review 131 (1987). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ARTICLE PROMISSORY ESTOPPEL DAMAGES Mary E. Becker* INTRODUCTION The proper measure of damages in promissory estoppel cases is a traditional subject of controversy.1 During the drafting of section 90 of the Restatement of Contracts,2 Professor Williston maintained that once a promise was enforced because a promisee had reasonably relied upon it, expectation damages should be awarded, as in other contract actions.3 Although the original section seemed to reflect this * Professor of Law, The University of Chicago. Research support was provided by a F. Leroy Hill Fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies and by the Russell Baker Schol- ars Fund, the Bernard F. Sang Faculty Fund and the John M. Olin Fund of the University of Chicago. I thank Albert Alschuler, Walter Blum, Gerhard Casper, Frank Easterbrook, Rich- ard Epstein, Daniel Fischel, Richard Helmholtz, Geoffery Miller, Bernard Meltzer, and Rich- ard Posner for helpful comments on an early version of this article. I especially thank Douglas Baird, Geoffery Stone, and Cass Sunstein for reading multiple drafts.