Contracts are made on assumptions about the future, and sometimes a later event destroys those assumptions entirely — a building burns down, the law changes, a key person dies. Frustration is the doctrine that decides whether such an event releases the parties from their bargain or whether they remain bound regardless. As a solicitor advising a client whose deal has been derailed by circumstances beyond their control, you need to know precisely when this narrow doctrine applies, when it doesn't, and what happens to the money once it does.
What this lesson covers:
- The Doctrine and Its Effect — what frustration is, how it automatically discharges a contract, and how it differs from common mistake.
- Establishing Frustration — the elements you must prove and the objective test for obligations becoming radically different.
- Categories of Frustrating Event — the recognised situations, from destruction of subject matter to illegality, death, and government intervention.
- Frustration of Purpose and Leases — when the point of a contract collapses, and why leases are frustrated only rarely.
- Limits and Bars to Frustration — self-induced frustration, force majeure clauses, and the role of foreseeability.
- Money Already Paid and Payable — how the 1943 Act unwinds sums paid and payable before discharge.
- Benefits Conferred and Excluded Contracts — recovering for valuable benefits, and the contracts the Act leaves out.