Peter K. Dementas V The Estate Of Jack Tallas Case Study

Case name: Peter K. Dementas v The Estate of Jack Tallas, 764 P.2d 628 (1988)

Procedural History: Claim was filed against decedent 's (Jack Tallas) estate to recover on written agreement to make the claimant (Peter Dementas) an heir for the amount of $50,000. The Third District Court of Salt Lake County held in favor for the estate. Dementas challenged the initial verdict in Utah’s Court of Appeals, Orme, J.. In this appeal, the court held that agreement was not an enforceable contract in that it constituted a promise for past services performed gratuitously.

Facts: In 1914 Jack Tallas migrated to the United States from Greece. He resided in Salt Lake City for 70 years where he met a good friend by the name of Peter Dementas during his tenure in Utah. Tallas and Dementas were friends for approximately 14 years. Within those years, Dementas rendered a number of services to Tallas. Some of those services included, rides to the grocery store, assisting Tallas with the management of his rental properties, and picking up his mail. On December 18, 1982, Tallas met with Dementas, and dictated a memorandum in Greek which stated that he owed Dementas $50,000 for all of his help over the years. Tallas also indicated that he would change his will to make Dementas an heir for this amount in the same memorandum. On

When past services are rendered with a promise to pay, the court may enforce the promise to pay. However in Dementas’s case, the service was rendered after the promise to pay. The court found that Dementas’s services were rendered with no expectation of payment from Tallas. Moral obligation was created after some courts found the ruling to be too harsh. Even if moral obligation was applied to Dementas’s case, the court found that Dementas performed all services without expecting any payments in