Part 4
Discharge and remedies
Ending the agreement
In forming a true agreement, as described in the first part of the book, the
two parties involved have a clear picture of exactly what is expected under
their contract.When all of this, as agreed, has been performed, then the
contract is said to be discharged. Sometimes, however, the performance of
the contract is not complete, or exactly as specified. So how close does it
have to be to the agreement? In theory, performance should be total, but
in practice, in a real world, this is not always possible, and to avoid
extensive litigation over minor issues, there is a certain amount of
compromise. Some of this forms the basis of the material in this part of
the book on performance.
I’ll agree to take less if you reduce the price
Quite often, in reality, people cannot perform their obligations, and make
an agreement with the other party to compromise on their original
positions. In this case the contract is discharged, really by forming a further
contract to end the original one! This also is discussed as a method of
ending the agreement.
Sorry, I just can’t do it
Sometimes a person or organisation just cannot meet their obligations, for
one reason or another. It may be a deliberate decision not to do
something, but could have a relatively ‘innocent’ explanation. Both of these
still leave one party responsible for the loss to another, and this is known
as breach. It is certainly a method of ending a contract, but not a pleasant
or satisfactory one, so it leads into a further area of what can be done to
rectify the situation, i.e. remedies (see below).