United States — Maine Act or statute

United States — Maine legislation

Maine Revised Statutes, Title 33, § 51: Writing required; consideration need not be expressed

Certain claims cannot be maintained unless the promise, contract, or agreement is in writing and signed; consideration does not have to be stated.

contract enforceabilitylitigationwriting requirements

Professional statute overview

Enactment structure, operative effect and source provenance

Official source

01

Purpose and legislative effect

“Certain claims cannot be maintained unless the promise, contract, or agreement is in writing and signed; consideration does not have to be stated.”

Use this record to locate individual provisions, understand the instrument’s recorded structure, and move from a research summary to the exact source text.

02

How the instrument operates

  1. 01

    Start with the recorded version

    Source version 1 Oct 2025. The date shown identifies this source expression and should not be treated as proof that no later change exists.

  2. 02

    Locate the controlling provision

    Use the provision map, part headings and full-text filter to move from the broad subject to the exact legal language.

  3. 03

    Read conditions and exceptions together

    Keep subsections, definitions, provisos and cross-references in context before drawing a legal conclusion.

  4. 04

    Verify currency and official wording

    Confirm later legislation, commencement notices and corrections with the official publisher before advice, filing or reliance.

03

Research entry points

Selected provisions across the instrument. Open any row to continue with the exact stored text.

04

Source and current-law status

Source record view

Source record from legislature.maine.gov · Source version 1 Oct 2025

Verify current force

The source record does not state a definitive current-law status. Check the official publisher and later amendments before relying on this text.

Source-indexed provision map

Sections and provisions

Search by section, heading, part or exact legal wording. Every result remains linked to the stored source record.

Showing 1 of 1 provisions

Provision
§ 51Writing required; consideration need not be expressedProvision

Certain claims cannot be maintained unless the promise, contract, or agreement is in writing and signed; consideration does not have to be stated.

No action shall be maintained in any of the following cases: 1. Executor or administrator. To charge an executor or administrator upon any special promise to answer damages out of his own estate; 2. Debt of another. To charge any person upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default or misdoings of another; 3. Agreement of marriage. To charge any person upon an agreement made in consideration of marriage; 4. Contract for sale of land. Upon any contract for the sale of lands, tenements or hereditaments, or of any interest in or concerning them; 5. Agreement not to be performed within one year. Upon any agreement that is not to be performed within one year from the making thereof; 6. Contract to pay debt discharged in bankruptcy. Upon any contract to pay a debt after a discharge therefrom under the bankrupt laws of the United States, or assignment or insolvent laws of this State; 7. Agreement to give property by will. Upon any agreement to give, bequeath or devise by will to another, any property, real, personal or mixed; 8. Agreement to refrain from carrying on any business. Upon any agreement to refrain from carrying on or engaging in any trade, business, occupation or profession for any term of years or within any defined territory or both; the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to any such agreement made prior to August 13, 1947; unless the promise, contract or agreement on which such action is brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, is in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some person thereunto lawfully authorized; but the consideration thereof need not be expressed therein, and may be proved otherwise.
Section 51Verify source

Legislative relationships

0 referenced instruments

Names are derived from the stored provision headings and citation-enrichment layer. Treat this as a research index and verify each relationship against the source text.

No structured legislative relationships were detected

The statute remains fully searchable by provision. Consult the source text for amendments and cross-references that have not yet been indexed.

Recorded versions and source checkpoint

1 version available in this collection

Current-law checkpoint
  • 1 Oct 2025 · currentEnglish

Source-linked research

Ask AI about this statute

The overview, provisions, and source records above are public. Continue in a separate conversation with this statute’s jurisdiction and source version attached.

About this LexChat collection

Statute information is organised from identified legislative sources for professional research. Corrections can be reported to hello@esheria.ai.