Markov v. ABC Transfer & Storage Co.

There are times when the law demands of one an honest declaration of future intentions. If, instead of merely predicting future events, he promises to pursue a course of action, the law in all probability will oblige the promisor to keep his word. Even the failure to keep a promise one did not have to make may be as actionable as overt deceit and misrepresentation and in legal effect the equivalent of both.

In 1962, the plaintiffs organized a 15-man copartnership, under the name of Auburn Industrial Center, to purchase from the General Services Administration of the United States the land,…