Читать книгу Canadian Business Contracts Handbook - Nishan Swais - Страница 46

To breach a contract is to fail to perform one or more of the obligations it imposes on you, regardless of whether you do so deliberately or inadvertently. You breach a contract when, through your actions or omissions (intentional or otherwise), you prevent the other party from being able to assert or reap the benefit of one or more of its contractual rights against you.

Breach is an element of every contractual relationship because the occurrence of a breach creates the basis on which the law, and in particular our judicial system, can be called on by the non-breaching party to provide a remedy, usually in the form of compensation (see section 3.1).

Even where it has not occurred, breach is still part of every contractual relationship because it guides the parties’ actions regarding what they can and cannot legally do.

In this way, it is possible to think of breach like a detective lurking in the shadows of every contractual relationship, waiting to step into the light at the first sign of wrongdoing and bring the breaching party to justice.

To illustrate what we mean, return to the example in which someone comes into your factory and purchases a forklift. In exchange for that forklift, she agrees to pay you $10,000 each month over the next six months. Knowing that it will constitute a breach not to make those payments when due, she will take care to perform her contractual obligations.

Suppose she simply chooses not to pay you the final installment of $10,000. In other words, she breaches the contract. By making the decision not to comply with her contractual obligations, you are now in a position to call on the law and courts to provide a remedy for that breach.