Module 10 Summary Notes: Discharge of Contracts

Flashcards summarizing key concepts related to the discharge of contracts, including discharge by performance and discharge by frustration.

What are the general ways contracts may be discharged?

Contracts may be discharged by performance or frustration.

What should you understand upon completion of this topic?

Understanding the general rules, exceptions to those rules, types of breach, effect of breach, conditions of frustration, acceptable types of impossibility, and non-frustrating events.

What terms are important when determining if a contract has been performed or completed?

Specific terms related to time, place, quality, and price.

When are time provisions outlined in formal contracts?

When the time for performance is specifically noted or derived from the happening of a particular event.

Name the rules of construction regarding order of performance.

When one event has to occur before another; promises are dependent, sequential obligations, and concurrent obligations.

What does it mean to sub-contract performance?

One party may enter into a second contract with another to perform the obligations in the original contract.

What does the law require regarding performance in good faith?

Each party must perform its obligations so that the other party will have the benefit of the contract.

Name the exceptions to the rule that each party's performance must be exactly what was required by the contract to be discharged.

Severable contracts, the de minimis rule, substantial performance, acceptance of partial performance, and obstruction of performance.

How can a contract become frustrated?

An event may occur which renders the performance impossible, or the contract may have become illegal.

Name a leading Australian case regarding discharge by frustration.

Codelfa Constructions Pty Ltd v State Rail Authority (NSW) (1982) 149 CLR 337.