Introduction to contracts
Most of the principle laws are a culmination of rulings in England. Hence, most legal statutes emanate from the English common law. Contract law in Australia is largely similar to the English statutes on contracts, but there are various differences created through the enactment of a variety of clauses. Prior to evaluating means to discharge contracts, it is vital to understand key aspects of a contract. A contract denotes a legal accord. For the accord to hold, certain things have to be present first, a consideration, willingness to enter into a legal commitment, and reception of the offer. These are vital aspects of a contract that will enable us to analyze the means of terminating a contract. Various ways of discharging a contract include.
Performance
When parties perform the required acts in the contract, then the contract terminates. The actions performed should adhere to the terms outlined in the accord. Failure to adhere to those terms will result in a party seeking damages or a remedy for breach of terms. In a sales agreement, the goods availed by the seller should meet the description provided by the buyer. If they do not, the buyer can sue the seller for contravention of the contract.
Agreement
Parties in the contract may decide to terminate their contracts. Therefore, there will be no consideration and transmission of value among the parties. Additionally, there will be no performance of any obligations. Finally, there will be no accord, which binds the parties lawfully. The agreement to extinguish the contract terminates the pre-existing agreement.
Breach of terms
An accord may terminate when one party violates the terms stipulated in the agreement. The violation may result from implied or express verbal communication. Furthermore, it may be a culmination of the conduct of a party. The violation of the contract may culminate in part failure of the value that the accord ought to transmit. These scenarios denote a breach of conditions of the accord. An accord should deliver a value or result in the performance of the agreed action. Failure in the above denotes repudiation. In the above scenarios, the defendant or injured party can institute an action for damages or enforcement of the accord. Subsequently, the court will determine the apposite action to undertake.
Frustration
A party in an accord may fail to perform the required responsibility owing to frustration. Frustration denotes conditions that emerge in the course of undertaking an accord making execution of the agreement impossible. Additionally, such conditions may deprive the agreement of any commercial viability. Such conditions should not result from the actions of the parties. Some of the conditions that can result in frustration include personal incapacities. In Taylor v Caldwell, the hall that was to host the concert was destroyed by fire. The destruction of the hall frustrated the execution of the accord between the two parties since the implementation of the accord depended on the presence of the hall.