The plaintiff said that the defendant had given him a contract to travel with him and to act as the defendant’s courier, but then changed his mind. The plaintiff obtained another engagement to start before the proposed term. The defendant said there could be no breach.
Held: Lord Campbell CJ said: ‘On this motion in arrest of judgment, the question arises, whether, if there be an agreement between A. and B., whereby B. engages to employ A. on and from a future day for a given period of time, to travel with him into a foreign country as a courier, and to start with him in that capacity on that day, A. being to receive a monthly salary during the continuance of such service, B. may, before the day, refuse to perform the agreement and break and renounce it, so as to entitle A. before the day to commence an action against B. to recover damages for breach of the agreement; A. having been ready and willing to perform it, till it was broken and renounced by B. The defendant’s counsel very powerfully contended that, if the plaintiff was not contented to dissolve the contract, and to abandon all remedy upon it, he was bound to remain ready and willing to perform it till the day when the actual employment as courier in the service of the defendant was to begin; and that there could be no breach of the agreement, before that day, to give a right of action. But it cannot be laid down as a universal rule that, where by agreement an act is to be done on a future day, no action can be brought for a breach of the agreement till the day for doing the act has arrived. ‘
Lord Campbell CJ
[1853] EWHC QB J29, [1853] 2 E and B 678, [1853] EngR 760, (1853) 2 El and Bl 678, (1853) 118 ER 922, [1853] EWHC QB J72
Bailii, Commonlii, Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Sarker v South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust EAT 25-Mar-1997
CS The appellant applied for a job with the respondent. Her offer was confirmed in writing. When the offer was withdrawn before she began to work, she claimed damages under s131.
Held: The employment . .
Cited – SK Shipping (S) Pte Ltd v Petroexport Ltd ComC 24-Nov-2009
The parties disputed the termination of a charterparty for anticipatory repudiatory breach.
Held: To the extent that the dispute relied on disputes of fact, the court preferred the evidence of the claimant. The defendant had displayed an . .
Cited – Bunge Sa v Nidera Bv SC 1-Jul-2015
The court considered the effect of the default clause in a standard form of contract which is widely used in the grain trade. On 10 June 2010 the respondents, Nidera BV, whom I shall call ‘the buyers’, entered into a contract with the appellants, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Contract
Leading Case
Updated: 12 November 2021; Ref: scu.241588
