TOPIC:

BREACH AS
WAY OF
DISCHARGING
OF A CONTRACT

• Breach of Contract

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 • OUTLINE
Discharge of a contract

Definition of Breach of Contract

Types of Breach of Contract

Conditions That an Action was a Breach

Remedies of Breach of Contract

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 DISCHARGE OF CONTRACT
•Discharge of Contract takes place when the
obligations of the contract between the parties
come to an end.
•A party who is subject to the obligations of a
contract may be discharged or freed himself from
those obligations in one of the four ways;
1. Discharge by Performance
2. Discharge by Agreement
3. Discharge by Breach
4. Discharge by Frustration

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 BREACH OF CONTRACT

•Breach of contract is a violation of

the agreed upon terms and
conditions of a binding contract. It
can happen in both written and oral
contract.

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 BREACH OF
CONTRACT(Cont’d)
• It is when a party fails to perform his or her contractual
obligation with no lawful or legal excuse. The failure to
perform the duty (obligation) could be a failure to
perform in time, failure to comply or follow all terms of
the contract or failure to perform all (complete failure),
therefore a failure with no legal or lawful excuse is not
allowed by the law.

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 TYPES OF BREACH OF CONTRACT

• Fundamental or Material Breach

• Minor Breach
• Anticipatory Breach

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 FUNDAMENTAL OR MATERAL
BREACH
• Fundamental Breach of a contract is when one party without a lawful excuse fails to
perform his or her central, key fundamental contractual obligation. The party fails to
perform or complete the contractual term that was essential to the agreement which
can affect the performance of the other party. As in the case of Karsales v
Wallis(1956).
• KARSALES V WALLIS Mr. Wallis agreed to buy a used Buick car from Stinton for £600, with financing arranged
through a hire-purchase company. When the car was delivered to Wallis' house, he found it to be in a
substantially different state than when he first saw it, with the bumper held on by a rope, old tires, missing
radio and chrome body trim strips, and a cylinder head with bent and burnt valves lying loose upon the
engine block. As a result, Wallis refused to pay for the car. Financing company sues Wallis, relies upon
exclusion clause
• held It is necessary to look at the contract apart from the exempting clauses and see what are the terms,
express or implied, which impose an obligation on the party. If he has been guilty of a breach of those
obligations in a respect which goes to the very root of the contract, he cannot rely on the exempting clauses.”

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 MINOR BREACH
• A minor breach or partial breach occurs when one party
fails to perform some part of the contract even though the
specified item or service was ultimately delivered. In the
case of Paul & Bill v Sevean Seas. For example, If a
homeowner seeks window replacements with the specific
material requirement and the contractor uses windows of a
different material of the same value this would be a minor
breach. Aside from the departure from one specfic
instruction, all parts of the contract have been completed.
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 ANTICIPATORY BREACH
• Anticipatory Breach of contract is the breach that occurs before the due date of the
performance. This is the intention not to fulfil the contract when the day for the performance
arrives. It could be expressed or implied. It is expressed when a party states that he or she
will not perform their contractual obligation. As in the case of
• Hochester v De La Tour(1853). In Hochester v. De la Tour, the plaintiff had agreed to work for the defendant
as a courier, starting on June 1. However, the defendant wrote to the plaintiff on May 11 to inform him that his services
were no longer required. The plaintiff then brought an action against the defendant, even though the time for the job
had not yet arrived
• There is an implied breach when a party does something which makes performance
impossible.
• As in the case of Omnium D’Entreprise v Sutherland.
The defendant agreed to hire a ship to the claimant but before the hiring period was about to
commence, the defendant sold the ship to someone else. The court held that the sale of the
slip amounted to a breach of contract.

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 ANTICIPATORY BREACH(Cont’d)
• When the defaulter states that he will not perform his
contractual obligation, the innocent party can;
1. Accept the repudiation and treat the contract as
discharged. The innocent party’s first option is to
treat the contract as discharged by reason of the
other party’s repudiation or anticipatory breach.
(Hochester v De La Tour(1853).

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 ANTICIPATORY BREACH(Cont’d)

2. The innocent party can affirm the contract and

treat it as still being in force until the dated fixed
for the performance in spite of the repudiation.

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 ANTICIPATORY BREACH(Cont’d)

The Effects of Affirmation

1. The contract remains in force and both parties are liable
to perform their respective obligations.
2. If in interim, the defaulting party changes his mind and
decides to perform, the contract is thus fulfilled and the
defaulting party incurs no liability
3. The defaulting party is entitled to take advantage of any
frustration event which may occur before the time of
performance.(Avery v Bowden)
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 ANTICIPATORY BREACH(Cont’d)
When the innocent party affirms the repudiation, it is because:
1. The innocent party can perform his ide of the contarct
without the assistance of the otner party. White and
Carter(Councils) v McGregor
2. The inncocent party could only do so if he legitimately
shows interest in the performing contract rather than
claiming damages. Hounslow London Borough Councils v
Twickenham Garden Development Ltd.

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 CONDITIONS THAT AN ACTION WAS A
BREACH OF CONTRACT
• Existence of a Valid Contract.
• If a term in the contract is broken.(Breach of contract
terms)
• Whether losses were incurred or expected to occur.
• A party involved in the contract was responsible for the
losses.

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REMEDIES OF BREACH OF CONTRACT
• Legal remedies available for the following types of breach include;
Fundamental Breach and Anticipatory Breach.
1. Specific Performance
2. Sue for Damages
3. Rescission

Minor Breach.
4. Quantum Meruit

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THANK YOU

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 Group Members
Kofi Andoh – SB/ACC/21/0157
Jufred Ewur Mensah - SB/ACC/21/0067
Irene Kpornu - SB/ACC/21/0134
Abdul Hameed Nkrumah - SB/ACC/21/0096
Gideon Dwumfour - SB/ACC/21/0005
Nancy Antwi - SB/ACC/21/0132
Evans Owusu Tuffour - SB/ACC/21/0135
David Edumadze - SB/ACC/21/0145
Prosper Buzungu - SB/ACC/21/0011
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