''Couturier v Hastie''
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UKHL J3is an English contract law">856
UKHL J3is an English contract law case, concerning common mistake between two contracting parties about the possibility of performance of an agreement.
Facts
Couturier agreed with Hastie to deliver some corn. They thought it was in transit between
Salonica
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
(now Thessaloniki) and the UK. But the corn had already decayed. The shipmaster had sold it. Couturier argued that Hastie was liable for the corn because Hastie had already bought an ‘interest in the adventure’, or rights under the shipping documents.
Judgment
The House of Lords held that because the corn effectively did not exist at the time of the contract, there was presence consideration and the buyers were not liable to pay the price. Lord Cranworth L.C. said:
"The whole question turns upon the construction of the contract... Looking to the contract... alone it appears to me clearly that what the parties contemplated... was that there was an existing something to be sold and bought."
[(1856) 5 H.L.C. 673 at 681]
See also
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English contract law
English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries ...
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Frustration in English law
Frustration is an English contract law doctrine that acts as a device to set aside contracts where an unforeseen event either renders contractual obligations impossible, or radically changes the party's principal purpose for entering into the con ...
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Sale of Goods Act 1979
The Sale of Goods Act 1979c 54 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulated English contract law and UK commercial law in respect of goods that are sold and bought. The Act consolidated the original Sale of Goods Act 1893 ...
s 6
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Notes
{{reflist, 2
English mistake case law
House of Lords cases
1856 in case law
1856 in British law
Greece–United Kingdom relations
Grain trade