Whether contract abrogated by the outbreak of war.Held: The buyer was entitled to repetition of the instalment of the price that was paid on signature of the contract as, owing to the war, further performance of the contract had become impossible.
Lord Dunedin explained that the remedy for frustration of the contract was given ‘not under the contract or because of breach of the contract inferring damages, but in respect of the equitable (of course I am not using the words in the technical English sense) doctrine of condictio causa data causa non secuta.’
The Earl of Birkenhead analysed the Roman law which had influenced the Scots law of unjustified enrichment, saying: ‘The underlying principle of the Condictio was that a person had received from another some property, and that, by reason of circumstances existing at the time or arising afterwards, it was or became contrary to honesty and fair dealing for the recipient to retain it.’
Judges:
Earl of Birkenhead, Lord Dunedin
Citations:
[1923] UKHL 1, 1923 SC (HL) 105, (1923) 16 Ll L Rep 327, [1924] AC 226
Links:
Scotland, Contract
Updated: 22 July 2022; Ref: scu.279684