This section is from the book "The Law Of Contracts", by Samuel Williston. Also available from Amazon: Treatise on the Law of Contracts.
Subsequently, under the lead of Lord Mansfield, this doctrine was carried so far that an admission of indebtedness was held necessarily to give rise to a new obligation even though the admission was accompanied by an expression of a determination not to pay the debt.3 But this doctrine was later overruled, and an admission treated as merely evidence of a new promise, but not conclusive evidence. The matter was finally settled in a case involving an admission in these words: "I know that I owe the money, but the bill I gave is on a three penny stamp and I will never pay it." The court held this insufficient;4 and it has ever since been recognized in England, and generally in the United States, that the effect of an admission or acknowledgment is merely that of evidence of a promise implied in fact. And if, taking all the circumstances into account the admission does not indicate an intention to pay, no liability arises from it.5 6
 
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