Frustration of purpose

In the law of contracts, frustration of purpose (also called commercial frustration) is a defense to enforcement of the contract. Frustration of purpose occurs when an unforeseen event undermines a party's principal purpose for entering into a contract, and both parties knew of this principal purpose at the time the contract was made. Despite frequently arising as a result of government action, any third party (or even nature) can frustrate a contracting party's primary purpose for entering into the contract.

Frustration of purpose is often confused with the related doctrine of impossibility, which is closely related. The distinction between the two is that impossibility concerns the duties specified in the contract, whereas frustration of purpose concerns the reason a party entered into the contract.

The Restatement of Contracts (Second) §265 defines frustration of purpose:


 * Where, after a contract is made, a party's principal purpose is substantially frustrated without his fault by the occurrence of an event the non-occurrence of which was a basic assumption on which the contract was made, his remaining duties to render performance are discharged, unless the language or circumstances [of the contract] indicate the contrary.

A circumstance is not deemed to be a "basic assumption on which the contract is made" unless the change in circumstances could not have been reasonably foreseen at the time the contract was made. As a result, it is rarely invoked successfully. Successful invocations usually come in waves during times of substantial tumult, such as after the passage of Prohibition, when bars and taverns no longer had a reason for their leases, or during major wars, when demand for many consumer goods and services drops far below normal.

If successfully invoked, the contract is terminated, and the parties are left as they are at the time of the litigation.