The Right to Recovery for Anticipatory Breach of Contract: Limitations and Exceptions, Slides of Law

Download The Right to Recovery for Anticipatory Breach of Contract: Limitations and Exceptions and more Slides Law in PDF only on Docsity! ANTICIPATORY REPUDIATION: ANACHRONISTIC LIMITATIONS THE RIGHT to recovery for anticipatory breach of contract was first authoritatively enunciated in Hochster v. De la Tour,' where it was announced that a party to an executory bilateral contract who repudiates it before the agreed time of performance becomes liable immediately for the full value of the promised performances This rule, which has been substantially followed in virtually every jurisdiction, contains two significant limitations: the contract involved must be bilateral, and the promised performance that has failed must not be solely for the payment of money.3 These limitations on the right of recovery for anticipatory breach were recently re-examined in Phelps v. Herro,4 where the defendant, after having made an initial payment, unequivocally announced his refusal to execute promissory notes for further payment for fractional interests in real estate which had been transferred to him by the plaintiff pursuant to contract. The Maryland Court of Appeals held that the doctrine sanctioning damages for an anticipatory breach of 2 El. & BI. 678, 118 Eng. Rep. 922 (Q.B. 1853). "[Upon] a contract to do an act on a future day, a renunciation of the contract by one party dispenses with a condition to be performed in the meantime by the other, there seems no reason for requiring that other to wait till the day arrives before seeking his remedy by action: and the only ground on which the condition can be dispensed with seems to be, that the renunciation may be treated as a breach of contract." Hochester v. De la Tour, supra note i at 694, 118 Eng. Rep. at 928. 3 REsTAT mENT, CONmcrs § 318 (x948 Supp.) provides: "In the case (i) of a bilateral contract that has not become unilateral by full performance on one side, and (2) of a unilateral contract where the agreed exchange for the promise or for its per- formance has not been given, any of following acts, done without justification by a promisor in a contract before he has committed a breach under the rules stated in §§ 314-315, constitutes an anticipatory repudiation which is a total breach of contract: (a) a positive statement to the promisee or other person having a right under the contract, indicating that the promisor will not or cannot substantially perform his contractual duties; (b) Transferring or contracting to transfer to a third person an interest in specific land, goods, or in any other thing essential for the substantial performance of his contractual duties; (c) any voluntary affirmative act which renders substantial performance of his contractual duties impossible or apparently impossble2' '5 Md. 223, 137 A.zd 159 (1957)- 137 A.2d at 164: "We think the proper rule is that the doctrine of anticipatory breach of a contract has no application to money contracts, pure and simple, where DUKE LAW JOURNAL contract was inapplicable' despite a vigorous dissent which noted:' Essentially I dissented because I could not bring myself.., to saddle Maryland needlessly with what I consider to be illogical and unsound law-a doctrine that is more apparent than real, and one that has been repudiated by the ablest judges and scholars. There are two reasons that largely explain the continued vitality of these limitations.7 First, Hochster v. De la Tour, through repeated one party has fully performed his undertaking, and all that remains for the opposite party to do is to pay a certain sum of money at a certain time or times, and, under the circumstances of this case, this is as far as we need to rule, although some of the cases cited hold that the doctrine of anticipatory breach has no application whatsoever in unilateral contracts, or bilateral contracts that have become unilateral by full per- formance on one side2' 'The dissenting judge aptly pointed out that the Maryland authorities tend more to refute than support the majority contentions. The court relied most heavily on two cases: Appleman v. Michael, 43 Md. 269 (x875); Precision Development Co. v. Fast Bearing Co., 183 Md. 399, 37 A.zd 905 (1944). The Appleman case involved the defendant's refusal to execute a ninety-day promis- sory note in payment for goods already delivered. The court allowed recovery on the apparent rationale that the goods were not sold on condition that the note be executed, but that the sale was merely an ordinary credit transaction. Notwithstanding the fact that the court said, "We are dearly of [the] opinion that no action for their [the goods'] value could under any circumstances, have been sustained if brought before the [time of performance]," Appleman v. Michael, supra at 281, no significant distinction can be ascertained between that case and the principal case of Phelps v. Herro, zS Md. 223, 137 A.zd i59 (s957). Recognizing this fact, the dissenting judge noted: '... the suit there [in the Appleman case] actually entered was one for the value of the goods sold and was not one for the breach of contract to execute the note that was to be given in payment for the goods2' 137 A.2d at 167. (Emphasis added.) The court in the Appleman case conceded that the vendor would be able to bring a special action for damages for breach of contract to execute the note and recover ". . . such damages as the jury might have thought reasonable. . . " Appleman v. Michael, supra at 28o. As the dissenting judge pointed out, ". . . that is precisely what the plaintiff sought in the case before us, damages for breach of contract to give the note." Phelps v. Herro, supra, 137 A.zd at 167. Precision Development Co. v. Fast Bearing Co., supra, invloved the sale of certain chattels with initial payment within 3o days and the remainder in 5 annual installments, the balance to be secured by a chattel mortgage. After acceptance of the goods, the defendant refused to execute the chattel mortgage. Thus, the facts involved are strikingly similar to those in the instant case. The majority opinion in the Herro case distinguished the Precision Development Co. case on the ground that the case at bar did not involve ". . . an agreement to secure the notes in any manner whatsoever, but the agreement of the appellants was a bald promise to pay money at a future date." Phelps v. Herro, supra, 137 A.zd at 164. Notwithstanding the fact that the Precition Development Co. case did involve security and was not a mere "bald promise," the contract had become wholly unilateral and the suit was for recovery of the purchase price. This is the exact situation found in the Herro-case. '4 CORBIN, CONTRACTS §§ 959-964 (195.); 5 WILLISTON, CONTRACTS §§ 1313, [Vol. 1959: 165 Vol. 1959: 16s] ANTICIPATORY REPUDIATION 169 alleged repudiation, 6oo of the promised iooo bales of merchandise had been delivered and paid for. Mr. Justice Fuller, writing for a unani- mous court, stated:' 8 In case of ordinary money contracts such as a promissory note, or a bond, the consideration has passed; there can be no mutual obligations; and cases of that sort do not fall within the reason of the rule. Nor did Mr. Justice Fuller include pure money contracts within the "reason of the rule." The ostensible "reason of the rule" is to foster respect for contractual obligations and to extend to the victim of a premature but unequivocal breach a present remedy. 9 Roehm v. Horst leaves unanswered the question, why should the fact that the consideration has passed effectively deprive a promisee of a reasonable expectation that he will be duly recompensed for the consideration he has conveyed? So long as this latter exception to the doctrine govern- ing anticipatory breach of contract is recognized, the only expectancy aId. at 7. ""The reason why a contract to pay money at a definite time in the future is an exception to the rule is that money is not a commodity which is bought and sold in the market and the market value of which fluctuates, as is the case with grain, stocks, and other similar articles. ' Alger-Fowler Co. v. Tracy, 98 Minn. 432, 437, 107 N.W. 1124, 1126 (x906). This reasoning adduced by the Minnesota court fails as "' reason." Money is, in the most literal sense, a commodity which is bought and sold in the market; its price indeed does fluctuate. But a more important weakness in the court's argument is pointed out by Professor Ballantine: "The basis of anticipatory breach generally recognized is the right to have the contract kept open as a subsisting and effective contract, not the uncertainty of the damages or value of the performance." Ballantine, supra note 7, at 351. Mr. Justice Cardozo has observed that upon examination of the wealth of cases on anticipatory breach it would be found that the rationales for exclusion of money contracts ".... have stated at times, though with needless generality, that by reason of the subject matter of the undertaking the rule applicable to contracts for the payment of money is not the same as that applicable for the performance of services or the delivery of merchandise .... The root of any valid distinction is not in the difference between money and merchandise or between money and services. What counts decisively is the relation between the maintenance of the contract and the frustration of the ends it was expected to subserve. The ascertainment of this relation calls for something more than the mechanical application of a uniform formula." New York Life Insurance Co. v. Viglas, 297 U.S. 672, 680 (936). Professor Corbin suggests that money contracts are often excluded because courts wish to preclude an "Acceleration of the Date of Maturity" and rejects this contention: "Money due next year cannot be made due now by the debtor's saying that he is not going to pay it. But neither can services that by the contract are to be performed next year be rendered immediately performable by the employee's saying that he is not going to render the service. The same is true with respect to contracts for the sale of goods or the conveyance of land' 4 CoRBIN, CONTRACTS § 965 (95). Cf. 4 CORBIN, CONTRACTS §§ 966, 967 (1951)- DUKE LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 1959: 165 of a promisee in such situation" is a future law suit. If a particular contract should involve an obligation to pay money in future install- ments,21 the promisee's plight is further confounded in that his redress will necessarily depend upon a series of expensive and relatively un- predictable suits. Yet, it is highly doubtful that there is any less "mutuality of obligation" involved in money contracts than in such other contracts as Mr. Justice Fuller would have conceded to fall "with- in the reason of the rule." A genuine practical need for the doctrine of anticipatory breach exists, and has been acknowledged by leading scholars and jurists. Consequently, the judicial toleration of the limitations on the doctrine of anticipatory breach of contract is as anomalous as it is unfortunate and, in the interests of complete justice, ought to be withdrawn. 22 "' Professor Williston is opposed to allowing immediate recovery because the "pre- mature" recovery would be had at the expense of clogical exactness": "It may be conceded that practical convenience is of more importance than logical exactness, but yet the considerations of practical convenience must be very weighty to justify infringing the underlying principles of the law of contracts. The law is not important solely or even chiefly for the just disposal of the litigated cases immediately before the court." 5 WILLISTON, CONTRACTS § 1321 (rev. ed. 1937). Professor Corbin takes an opposite view: "The repudiation by.the defendant is generally morally indefensible. It disturbs the confidence and security of the promisees it causes him immediate pecuniary injury; and the allowance of an immediate action makes for an early settlement of the dispute and a timely payment of damages." 4 COoRN, CoNACrs § 961 (195). 21 Hawkinson v. Johnston, 122 F.2d 724 (8th Cir. 1941); Sagamore Corp. v. Will- cutt, X20 Conn. 3.15, i8o Atl. 464 (1935); Pollack v. Pollack, 39 S.W.2d 853 (Tex. Civ. App. 1931). See also 4 CORBIN, CONTRACTS § 966 (x951); 5 WILLISTON, CON- TRACTS § 137, (rev. ed.1 9 37). A policy argument is advanced in the case of Hawkinson v. Johnston, supra at 729: "The commercial world has long since learned the desirability of fixing its liabilitie; and losses as quickly as possslle, and the law similarly needs to remind itself that, to be useful, it too must seek to be practical." " "One does not have to await the consummation of threatened injury to obtain preventive relief. If the injury is certainly impending that is enough." Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U.s. 553, 593 (1923). "To say that the law cannot logically give any remedy to enforce the contract against the repudiator until he actually carries out his injurious threat seems as pacifistic as to say that a country cannot take any measures to defend itself upon a mere declaration of war, but must wait until it is actually invaded and occupied by the enemy..... It is submitted that the doctrine of anticipatory breach is not only supported by its practical convenience, but by strong considerations of justice to the plaintiff; that it does not enlarge the duties of the de- fendant or hold him liable on a promise he never made." Comment, 22 MICH. L. REa. 329, 352 (1923).