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.


Uh-huh.  Yeah, I've spent my years in law school too. Getting it in writing is preferred for a reason.  They're HARD to enforce.
Try to prove what was said in court -- especially an alleged 50 year old oral promise...

You can claim anything in an oral promise complaint.  But you'd better have a boat load of witnesses who were there and heard every word exactly as the plaintiff says it was said. Waiting some 50 years before filing tends to reduce the number of witnesses (if there were any -- I doubt Goodman would ever say something like the Kirby estate claims in front of others).


This case will be settled if and only if Disney decides its not worth the expense/publicity of defending it.  
It can toss a million at the Kirby's -- much of which will go to their lawyers -- or fight until all the Kirby family has died of old age.  Corporations are immortal.

One question, why not sue the Goodman estate, if any?  If Jack was telling the truth, then Goodman's to blame, not which ever companies bought up Marvel since.  Oh, right, there may not be a Goodman estate left and the despised Disney goliath is freaking rich.  This is American greed at its "best."  Sue for a settlement to make you go away.

Kirby could have had the testicles to fight while he and most potential witnesses were still alive.  He might have had a case then and I'd love to have seen him on the stand.  Granted he did pretty poorly in the other legal case he was involved in, when he was found liable for not paying then DC editor Jack Schiff monies due him by Kirby.  Apparently Jack was not the best witness when he testified.
  

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