Opinion ID: 1138261
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: was the agreement negating the dragnet clause supported by any new consideration if such an agreement existed?

Text: While there was sufficient evidence demonstrating a subsequent agreement between Iuka and Beard, consideration must exist to make it legally binding on Iuka. A written contract may be modified by a subsequent agreement, but the law of this state is that such an agreement must be supported by new or additional consideration. Edrington v. Stephens, 148 Miss. 583, 592, 114 So. 387, 389 (1927). Consideration is sufficient if there is any benefit to the promisor or any loss, detriment, or inconvenience to the promisee. Jim Murphy & Assocs. v. LeBleu, 511 So.2d 886, 891 (Miss. 1987); Miller v. Bank of Holly Springs, 131 Miss. 55, 65, 95 So. 129, 130 (1922). Consideration must constitute legal detriment as opposed to detriment in fact. In the case at hand, we find that Beard indeed suffered a legal detriment in association with her agreement to fully satisfy her loan in return for Iuka's promise to cancel the deed of trust. Faced with the possible foreclosure of Lot 44, Beard prematurely paid the balance of the $46,512.31 loan to Iuka in full. Regardless of how Beard was able to obtain the funds to pay the entire balance due, we find that the act of prematurely satisfying her debt to Iuka was a legal detriment sufficient to enforce the subsequent agreement which the jury found existed between Nancy and Iuka. Iuka argues that Nancy Beard was already under a legal obligation and pre-existing duty to pay off this loan, and therefore, her actions did not constitute legally sufficient consideration. In Memphis Automatic Music Co. v. Chadwick, 164 Miss. 635, 639-40, 146 So. 137, 137-38 (1933), a customer purchased a piano in exchange for two installment notes, but the customer executed new notes payable when the installments became due. At the time the notes were renewed, the music store promised to cure certain defects in the piano. The customer later defaulted on the new notes, but claimed that the music store breached their promise to repair the piano. This Court did not enforce the promise to cure the defects, finding that this promise was not supported by consideration because the notes were already past due. Id. In Barcroft v. Armstrong, 198 Miss. 565, 579-80, 21 So.2d 817, 819 (1945), the Court concluded that the promisor's promise to lower the interest rate on a note in return for the promisee's promise to pay the property taxes on the land securing the note was unenforceable for lack of consideration because the promisee was already under the legal obligation from the original agreement to pay the property taxes. The Barcroft and Chadwick cases are distinguishable because they involved obligations which were definitively past due or pre-existing. In this case, the amount which Nancy paid, the full amount of the debt remaining on the loan, was not legally due. Only the past due installments were actually due, not the total unpaid difference of the loan. The facts show that Nancy was not legally required to fully satisfy the loan at the time full payment was tendered. Jourdan testified that although payments were substantially in arrears, Nancy was merely under a duty to cover the overdue payments and bring them up to date. Furthermore, Iuka admittedly had not taken the mandatory contractual steps necessary to invoke the acceleration clause in the promissory note. The right of acceleration clearly did not exist at the time the subsequent agreement to cancel the deed of trust was formed. Finally, as indicated by the exchange supra between Jourdan and Nancy, the mutual obligations of the parties were bargained for at a point in time before the Beards satisfied their loan obligations. There was sufficient evidence to show that the proposed agreement was not just an afterthought. It follows that the subsequent agreement which the jury found to exist was not void for lack of consideration.