Taylor v. Caldwell

"Taylor v. Caldwell", 3 B. & S. 826, 122 Eng. Rep. 309 (1863), is a famous English legal case which established the doctrine of impossibility in contract law.

Facts

Defendants Caldwell & Bishop owned Surrey Gardens & Music Hall, and agreed to rent it out to the plaintiffs, Taylor & Lewis, at the rate of £100/day. The plaintiffs had planned to use the music hall for four concerts for four different dates during the summer of 1861, and had intended to provide a variety of extravagant entertainments, including a singing performance by Sims Reeves. According to the contract the parties had signed, the defendants were to provide most of the performers. The plaintiffs were to receive the gate receipts and advertise for these events. Then, on June 11, 1861, a week before the concert was to be given, the music hall burned to the ground. The plaintiffs sued the music hall owners for breach of contract for failing to rent the music hall. There was no clause within the contract itself which allocated the risk to the underlying facilities, except for the phrase “God’s will permitting” at the end of the contract.

Decision

Judge Blackburn began his opinion by stating that the agreement between the parties was a contract, despite their use of the term “lease”. Blackburn reasoned that the rule of absolute liability set forth in "Paradine v. Jane" only applied to positive, definite contracts, not to those in which there was an express or implied condition underlying the contract. Blackburn further reasoned that the continued existence of the Music Hall in Surrey Gardens was an implied condition essential for the fulfillment of the contract. The destruction of the music hall was the fault of neither party, and rendered the performance of the contract by either party impossible. Blackburn cited to the Civil code of France and the Roman law for the proposition that when the existence of a particular thing is essential to a contract, and the thing is destroyed by no fault of the party selling it, the parties are freed from obligation to deliver the thing. He further analogized to a situation in which a contract requiring personal performance is made, and the party to perform dies, the party’s executors are not held liable under the common law of England. Blackburn thus held that both parties were excused from their obligations under their contract.

External links

* [http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/1863/J1.html Full text of decision from BAILII.org]
* [http://www.scu.edu/law/FacWebPage/Neustadter/contractsebook/main/cases/TaylorImposs.html Excerpted version of case]