Oral promises are legally enforceable and far from worthless. When you make an oral promise and then break it, you are liable for breach of contract or, if you never intended to live up to the promise, fraud.

Marvel's problem is that they are the ones who should have documented their agreements with Kirby on paper dotting the last "i." Marvel needed to protect itself better. Because they did not, it appears that the Kirby Estate may have the upper hand in the present legal battles


Isn't it up to the Kirby estate to actually prove that a legitimate oral agreement existed? Otherwise, what's to stop them from saying "Goodman promised Kirby 51% of the company over lunch one day, you don't have proof to contrary, therefore we win." ?