Chapter 18

To terminate contractual duties

The act of satisfying the duties of a contract

A qualification in a contract based on a possible future event.

A condition that must be fulfilled before a party's performance can be required. The condition precedes the absolute duty to perform.

When a condition operates to terminate a party's absolute promise to perform. The condition follows, or is subsequent to, the time at which the absolute duty to perform arose.

When each party's performance is conditioned on the other party's performance or offer to perform (tender). These conditions exist only when the contract expressly or impliedly calls for the parties to perform their respective duties simultaneously.

An unconditional offer to perform by a person who is reading, willing, and able to do so.

This is the nonperformance of a contractual duty. The breach is material when performance is not at least substantial.

Before either party to a contract has a duty to perform, one of the parties may refuse to carry out his or her contractual obligations.

The process by which a contract is canceled or terminated and the parties are returned to the positions they occupied prior to forming it. The parties must make another agreement that also satisfies the legal requirements for a contract. There must be an offer, an acceptance, and consideration.

This occurs when both of the parties to a contract agree to substitute a third party for one of the original parties. The requirements are as follows:
1. A previous valid obligation
2. An agreement by all parties to a new contract
3. A new contract that is valid

A proceeding in which attempts are made to allocate the debtor's assets to the creditors in a fair and equitable fashion. Once the assets have been allocated, the debtor receives a ... ... .... This prevents the creditors from enforcing most of the debtor's contracts.

After a contract has been made, supervening events may make performance impossible in an objective sense. This is known as ... ... ... and can discharge a contract.

Courts may also excuse parties from their performance when it becomes much more difficult or expensive than the parties originally contemplated at the time the contract was formed. However, the anticipated performance must become significantly more difficult or costly. In addition, the added burden of performing must not have been foreseeable by the parties when the contract was made.

In principal, a contract will be discharged if unforeseen supervening circumstances make it impossible to attain the purpose both parties had in mind when they made the contract. This typically involves an event that decreases the value of what a party receives under the contract.