Contract – War – Conditions – Delivery of Goods open to being Suspended – ‘Contingencies Preventing or Hindering Delivery’ – ‘Short Supply.’
Contracts for delivery of chemicals by monthly instalments during 1914 contained the condition ‘delivery may be suspended pending any contingencies beyond the control of the sellers or buyers (such as . . war . . ) causing a short supply of labour, fuel, raw material, or manufactured produce, or otherwise preventing or hindering the manufacture or delivery of the article.’
As a result of the outbreak of war in August 1914 the sources of supply of the chemical were greatly reduced, and the appellants claimed that the above quoted condition had become operative, and intimated to the parties in the different contracts that the contracts were suspended. The parties to the contracts all acquiesced save the respondent. The appellants did obtain subsequently, and at a considerably increased price, small supplies of the chemicals which would have been sufficient to complete the amount in the respondent’s contract, leaving all the others unsupplied. The respondent claimed damages.
Held that while the rise in price was not a hindrance to delivery, in fact there was an actual shortage sufficient to hinder delivery ( dis. Lord Finlay, L.C.) and to justify suspension of the contract.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Finlay), Earl Loreburn, Viscount Haldane, Lords Dunedin, Atkinson, Shaw, and Wrenbury
Citations:
[1917] UKHL 523, 55 SLR 523
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Contract
Updated: 19 July 2022; Ref: scu.631008