This section is from the book "Handbook Of The Law Of Contracts", by Wm. L. Clark, Jr.. Also available from Amazon: Handbook of the law of contracts.
35. At common law, bills of exchange and promissory notes must be in writing.
36. By statute, writing is in some states declared necessary for the following contracts:
(a) Acceptance of a bill of exchange or other order for the payment of money.
(b) Acknowledgment of a debt barred by the statute of limitations.
(c) New promise by infant after attaining his majority.
(d) By the statute of frauds writing is necessary in certain specified contracts.
In the preceding chapter we have dealt with those contracts which acquire validity by reason of their form alone, and we now pass to simple or parol contracts, which depend for their validity upon the presence of consideration. As we have seen, however, there are some simple contracts which, while not in the solemn form of a deed or record, are required by law to be in writing, and which, therefore, depend not only on the presence of consideration, as in the case of other simple or parol contracts, but also on their form. These contracts, in so far as their form is concerned, we shall deal with in the present chapter.
Independently of any requirement of law as to form, an agreement which might be made orally may require writing, because of the intention of the parties not to be bound until their agreement is reduced to writing. We have considered the question in treating of offer and acceptance.1
 
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