can one be forced to pay for a gift freely given?

[oniongirl]

A friend of mine, T, moved in the middle of August into a new apartment building. He became friends with another person who had just moved in, J. Neither of them had phone service yet and J offered to let T use his cell phone to call his parents in Germany to tell them that he was okay. T asked how much the call would cost. J said that T didn't need to worry about paying since J's mother always paid the cell phone bill. Two months later, in October, J got into a fight with T and the friendship ended. Now J has told T that his mother will not pay for the phone bill and is demanding that T pay the roughly $40 his phone call cost. J is threatening legal action against T unless he pays him that $40.
I think that the threat is empty and that there's no basis for any legal action since at the time J stated that T did not need to pay him and the cell phone call was offered to T as a gift. I'd like to hear any advice on what T can do at this point and opinions on whether my beliefs about the lack of basis for legal action are correct or not.

Thanks for any help or insight you can give me.

-jennifer

 

[HomeGuru]

The $40 bill needs to be paid.