The court was asked whether a vendor of land, who served a notice to complete making the time for completion of the essence of the sale contract, and then, mistakenly, treated the contract as at an end prior to the expiry of the notice, was thereby itself in repudiatory breach of the contract entitling the purchaser to terminate the contract.
Held: The question was answered by answering the question ‘Whether looking at all the circumstances objectively, that is from the perspective of a reasonable person in the position of the innocent party, the contract breaker has clearly shown an intention to abandon and altogether to refuse to perform the contract.’
Judges:
Mummery, Etherton, Sullivan LJJ
Citations:
[2010] EWCA Civ 1168, [2011] 2 All ER (Comm) 223
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Woodar Investment Development Ltd v Wimpey Construction UK Ltd HL 14-Feb-1980
Wimpey agreed to buy land from Woodar for a sum of andpound;850,000 of which andpound;150,000 was to be paid to Transworld. A month later Wimpey sent a letter purporting to rescind the contract and Woodar sued for damages including the . .
Cited – Mannai Investment Co Ltd v Eagle Star Assurance HL 21-May-1997
Minor Irregularity in Break Notice Not Fatal
Leases contained clauses allowing the tenant to break the lease by serving not less than six months notice to expire on the third anniversary of the commencement date of the term of the lease. The tenant gave notice to determine the leases on 12th . .
Cited – CDV Software Entertainment Agv Gamecock Media Europe Ltd and Others ChD 20-Nov-2009
. .
Cited – Spettabile Consorzio Veneziano di Armamento e Navigazione v Northumberland Shipping Co Ltd CA 1919
Purchasers had claimed rescission of contracts for the construction of ships and ‘alternatively, a declaration that the contract was null and void, or had been frustrated, or was at an end’.
Held: What the purchaser wanted, in substance, was . .
Cited – Chilean Nitrate Sales Corporation v Pansuiza Compania de Navegacion SA and Marine Transportation Co Ltd (‘The Hermosa’) CA 1982
Donaldson LJ summarised the law as regards renunciation of a contract, saying: ‘The learned Judge formulated the test to be applied as being ‘whether MTC and the owners acted in such a way as to lead a reasonable person to conclude that they did not . .
Cited by:
Cited – Oates and Another v Hooper and Another CA 26-Nov-2010
The court was asked whether a seller of property who had purported to give a premature notice of rescission under the Law Society’s 2003 Standard Conditions of Sale was in repudiatory breach of contract.
Held: The court must look at the . .
Cited – Mr H TV Ltd v ITV2 Ltd ComC 8-Oct-2015
The claimant had contracted with the defendant for the production of a series of reality TV shows featuring celebrities. After severe personal clashes between the people involved on the claimants side, the contract was terminated. The claim was that . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract
Updated: 25 August 2022; Ref: scu.425373