Business Law 13th Edition by Frank Cross, Kenneth Clarkson, Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 12

Impossibility of Performance In the following situations, certain events take place after the contracts are formed. Discuss whether each of these contracts is discharged because the events render the contracts impossible to perform.
(a) Jimenez, a famous singer, contracts to perform in your nightclub. He dies prior to performance.
(b) Raglione contracts to sell you her land. Just before title is to be transferred, she dies.
(c) Oppenheim contracts to sell you one thousand bushels of apples from her orchard in the state of Washington. Because of a severe frost, she is unable to deliver the apples.
(d) Maxwell contracts to lease a service station for ten years. His principal income is from the sale of gasoline. Because of an oil embargo by foreign oil-producing nations, gasoline is rationed, cutting sharply into Maxwell's gasoline sales. He cannot make his lease payments.