Types of circumstances leading to frustration.

Discharge requires performance of obligations. The traditional rule was that complete performance was required of a party regardless of the reason for the failure to perform.1 This was unfair if failure to perform was beyond a party's control. So a doctrine developed whereby obligations under the contract ended at the moment the intervening event prevented performance - the doctrine of frustration. Blackburn J expressed it in Taylor v Caldwell:2 "in contracts which depend on the continued existence of a given person or thing, a condition is implied that the impossibility of performance arising from the perishing of the person or thing shall excuse the performance." The rule is justified 'because the circumstances in which the performance is called for would render it a thing radically different from that which was undertaken by the contract' - Lord Radcliffe in the Davis Contractors Ltd. v Fareham UDC.3 The immediate consequences are: o Both parties are relieved further performance; o Which does not remove all injustice since the party ready to perform will still be denied from the other side; o And a number of limitations are placed on the doctrine. There are three types of circumstances leading to frustration. Frustration is accepted by impossibility of a contract, this involves supervening events may make performance impossible in the situations which involve

  • Word count: 2500
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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Terms, Conditions, Innominate terms

Lord Justice Dipplock, by his judgment in Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co V Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha1, put into effect a new way of examining the cases for the breach of a contractual term and the rights of innocent party to terminate the contract or to sue for damages. Since then, the principle was the classification of the terms into 'conditions' and 'warranties'. After the leading case of Hong Kong Fir Shipping, a new intermediate level of terms category, the 'innominate terms', came in to give the courts more flexibility to judge with fairness. The classification of terms can be made in three different ways2. The first one is by Parliament. The Sale of Goods Act 1979 in many sections3 classifies the terms as 'conditions', giving guidelines to the courts. A decision based on the above Act (its previous version of 1893) was this of Arcos Ltd V Ronaasen and Sons4 when the House of Lords gave the right to the purchasers to reject the goods because what the sellers delivered did not agreed with the description that existed in the written contract5. The second one is by the courts. The courts, when the terms are classified neither by Parliament nor by the contractual parties, use their previous judgments and, after Hong Kong Fir Shipping case, the principle of innominate term to decide whether a breach of a term has such serious consequences as to bring

  • Word count: 1921
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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Determining if Armidale wool ltd is legally obligated

When determining if Armidale wool ltd is legally obligated to deliver the 200 wool car seat covers at the reduced price. Three main legal issues must be addressed. . Was the initial offer from Armidale wool ltd a valid contract? 2. Was it an offer and not invitation to treat? 3. Was the revocation of the offer done before acceptance? A valid contract is defended as an agreement made between two or more parties, whereby legal rights and obligations are created which the law enforce. When deciding if the contact was valid three main elements must be considered. ) Intention to create legal relations - The parties of the contract must intend the contract to be legally bound. Using this, it is obvious that Armidale wool ltd indented to create legal relation, with sending a written offer for the sale of 200 wool seat covers. 2) Offer and acceptance- An offer is not an invitation to treat. For an agreement to exist there must be at least 2 parties. One party must make an offer; the other party must accept the offer. The words used through out must be clear and unambiguous. An offer is a proposal by one party to enter into a legally binding contract with another. Acceptance occurs when the party to whom the offer is made agrees to the proposal of the person making the offer. Rules as to offer and acceptance by post . An offer by letter is not valid until it is received by the

  • Word count: 712
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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Contract Essay - The decision in Williams v Roffey.

Contract Essay Tan Se Lene Tutorial Timeslot: Wed 10-11am The decision in Williams v Roffey has broken new ground in the doctrine of consideration, suggesting that if a promise to raise the price paid to the promise is made in the spirit of a genuine attempt to resolve any difficulties which might have arisen during the performance of the contract, the promise can be enforced as consideration for the new promise can come in the form of "practical benefit"1. The Court of Appeal tested the validity of this promise by reliance on economic duress, and since none was found2, the promise was held to be enforceable. This liberal view of what constitutes consideration is questionable on many grounds. Firstly, Glidewell L.J. made an error when he placed his proposition (v) before (vi) in his 6-stage test.3 Their positions should be reversed.4 The test of validity based on the absence of duress should not be the basis upon which a promise has to be enforced. That is, just because the promise was not made under duress does not make the promise enforceable if there is no consideration involved. The concept of duress is only applicable and relevant when all other aspects of the contract are met (consideration is present), and this was not the case here. A second flaw of this decision is the ramifications on future commercial contracts. It might open the floodgate to commercial

  • Word count: 2191
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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A contract is a legally binding agreement, "A promise or set of promises which the law will enforce"

A contract is legally binding, "A promise or set of promises which the law will enforce"1. Offer and acceptance are two components of a valid contract; a "meeting of the minds." An Offer is a promise by one party to act or perform in a specified manner provided the other party will act or perform in the manner requested. Consideration is an act or forbearance, or the promise thereof, which is offered by one party to induce another to enter into a contract; that which is given in exchange for something from another. Acceptance is the expression of the intention of the person receiving an offer to be bound by the terms of the offer. Its important to define an offer from an invitation to treat. An invitation to treat is defined as 'a mere declaration of willingness to enter into negotiations; it is not an offer, and cannot be accepted so as to form a binding contract'2. An invitation to treat cannot form a binding contract. There are various forms of an invitation to treat including; The display of goods, goods with a price ticket in a shop window or on a supermarket shelf is not an offer to sell but an invitation for customers to make an offer to buy. Advertisements of goods for sale are normally interpreted as invitations to treat3. The display of goods can also be seen in Fisher v Bell4. An example of this is at a supermarket where goods on a shelf5 are taken to the checkout

  • Word count: 2428
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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Advise the parties whether there is a contract between Hettie and Barbara for the sale of the piano.

Contract Law Practice Assignment Hettie is elderly and has taught the piano privately for many years. Recently Hettie has suffered some health problems and so she has decided to give up teaching and to move into a small flat. She has been forced to find another home for her grand piano. Several weeks ago she offered the piano for £2,500 to one of her favourite former pupils, Barbara, who said that she would have to think about it. Hettie said that she must know by Friday and instructed Barbara to drop a note through her front door by hand as she did not trust the postal services. On Tuesday Barbara sent a letter to Hettie by post as she'd not have time to go over to the other side of town to Hettie's house. In the letter Barbara said that she would like to buy the piano but asked whether she could pay by five instalments of £500 over a one-year period. Barbara went on to say that she assumed that the adjustable music stool and the piano music would be included. Hettie put the letter, which arrived on Wednesday, to one side and went shopping in town. Whilst she was out she met Philip and offered the piano to him. He immediately accepted and made arrangements to collect it the following week. On Thursday Barbara was in town when she met another former pupil of Hettie's, Joyce, who told her that Hettie was planning to sell the piano to Philip. Barbara was extremely anxious

  • Word count: 2099
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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What is consumer protection?

Consumer Protection INTRODUCTION What is consumer protection? A customer is someone who pays for goods or services. Protection means to prevent them from being harmed or damaged. As a consumer the law gives you consumer rights. TASK 1 Why do we need consumer protection? Well, let me tell you what will happen if the consumer protection doesn't exist: * Companies will mislead you. * Companies will sell faulty goods by mistake or deliberately. * Companies might sell goods that endanger the consumer. * Companies will take advantage of you. Example if consumer protection did not exist: If you buy a chocolate from a newsagent, it turned out to be out of date and you would like to refund it, if he doesn't want to refund it than you couldn't do nothing about it but this isn't very important whereas if you buy a car which in the meter it says it has 5,000 mileage but the real mileage is 20,000 then you still cannot do nothing about it. Consumer Protection is needed to protect the consumers from big companies for selling the products that: * Did not meet its description. Companies and their representatives should describe the goods accurately. If the companies do sell goods that are not as described then the consumer has the right to obtain a full refund. If the company disagrees then the consumer may take them to court for compensation. * Are not fit for the intended

  • Word count: 1010
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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Take any aspect of the English law of contract which you think is open to improvement and describe with reasons how it could be made better

"Take any aspect of the English law of contract which you think is open to improvement and describe with reasons how it could be made better" The doctrine of offer and acceptance has been described by many, most notably Lord Denning, as outdated and inflexible. Many cases have shown that rigidly trying to fit the facts of a case into the template of offer and acceptance can mean that a reasonable conclusion is often not reached. Although the current method works in the majority of situations, there are exceptional cases where a new outlook is required. The current offer and acceptance model will be examined to ascertain whether is too limited to satisfy all situations, and consideration will be given to any suitable alternatives. It is first important to examine the current model of offer and acceptance. The doctrine is one of common law and it demands that, for a binding contract, there must be an offer by one person, and a corresponding unequivocal acceptance, accompanied by consideration. An offer can be described as "An expression of willingness to contract on certain terms, made with the intention that it shall become binding as soon as it is accepted by the person to whom it is addressed".i Without these aspects, there can be no binding contract between two parties. In simple cases where A offers to sell B a property and B accepts this offer, then there are no

  • Word count: 1618
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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"The current law of duress and undue influence is so unclear that it creates chaos, rather that certainty in the law" Discuss.

Contract Essay - Spring Term: "The current law of duress and undue influence is so unclear that it creates chaos, rather that certainty in the law" Discuss. The purpose of this essay is to examine a number of cases concerning duress and undue influence and to decide to what extent the above quotation is correct and true of decided cases. Duress shall be examined first in relation to the quotation and then finally undue influence. Duress can be defined as 'Pressure, especially actual or threatened physical force, put on a person to act in a particular way. Acts carried out under duress usually have no legal effect; for example, a contract obtained by duress is voidable' (Oxford Dictionary of Law, New Edition). Economic duress involves a party to contract experiencing pressure from the other so as to change the terms of the contract, to renegotiate its terms, to suit the other party. Conversely, another approach to the area of duress is that the parties are free to alter the terms of their agreement, so long as they provide consideration for the variation. Consideration may arise in the form of both parties agreeing to abandon claims under the previous agreement, or that one party has offered some nominal consideration for the variation. The doctrine of consideration has gradually shifted to the doctrine of economic duress, and is still a comparatively recent

  • Word count: 2823
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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A contract may be automatically discharged under the doctrine of frustration. This can only occur when the effect of external circumstances render further performance of the contract impossible, render it illegal or brings about a drastic change in circum

. A contract may be automatically discharged under the doctrine of frustration. This can only occur when the effect of external circumstances render further performance of the contract impossible, render it illegal or brings about a drastic change in circumstances. This means that the contract would become something drastically different from that which was originally undertaken. When establishing if a contract can be discharged by frustration cases must fall into one of three different situations. Taylor v Caldwell (1863)1 is a prime example of impossibility, due to the subject matter being destroyed. In this case the contract involving the hiring of a music hall was held to be frustrated as the hall was destroyed by a fire. A contract may also be frustrated if the subject matter becomes unavailable due to an event completely unrelated to the contract. Nickoll and Knight V Ashton Eldridge Co (1901)2. This principal also applies if the subject matter is a person, Morgan v Manser (1948)3. A contract will only be frustrated if the method of performance that becomes impossible was essential to the contract or was stipulated in the contract. The contract between Cargo Carriers Ltd v Nukit plc involved a particular method of performance via the 'Highland Train Line'. The line was to be used to transport 100 tons of nuclear waste a week for a period of six months. This period

  • Word count: 2960
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
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