Monarco v. Lo Greco
Supreme Court of California
220 P.2d 737 (1950)
Christie Lo Greco (defendant) devoted himself to running his stepfather Natale Castiglia's family business in reliance on Natale's promise that Christie would inherit the entire estate, apart from small gifts to siblings, in exchange for staying home to run the business; Christie gave up further education and any chance to build his own separate assets or ownership stake. Natale later changed his mind, terminated his joint tenancies with his wife Carmela, and executed a new will leaving everything to his grandchild, Carmen Monarco (plaintiff). After that will was probated, Carmen sought partition of the property, and Carmela and Christie cross-complained based on Natale's broken promise to devise the property to Christie; the trial court ruled for Christie and Carmela, and Carmen appealed.
Whether a party who has been unjustly enriched to another party's detriment may be estopped from invoking the Statute of Frauds to avoid an oral agreement that induced that detrimental reliance.