Breach of contract - contract law
Topic 3: Breach in contract
1) Breach of contract:
Spanish Contract Law provides a broad notion of breach of contract for any behavior that departs from the specified behavior in the contract in any way (time, quality, substance, etc.) or is not specially justified on legal grounds (actions forbidden by the government are not breaches since they are justified on a legal ground).
The general benchmark to determine breach is the contract agreed by the parties themselves, and not external notions. However, external notions are used in important situation such as the consumer's market where the consumer's expectations are the primary benchmarks to assess quality and performance since there is not an explicit contract. External notions are also important in other market, where a third party may have some duty or responsibility over the contract, and therefore, is responsible (at least in part) for any potential breach.
The reason for breach does not exclude the breach. What matters is the breach. The analysis of breach takes place in objective terms. Subjective factors generally do not exclude breach, although they may affect remedies. In certain contractual areas, breach of duty and fault are generally required (professional contracts, management contracts: breach requires violation of a duty of care or a duty of loyalty). In professional contracts, the fault may be of a professional who was in contract with the firm, and in management contracts, it may be the fault of the manager.
2) Remedies:
Spanish Contract Law provides a wide range of general remedies for breach of contract:
• Specific performance: the court forces the breacher to act as it was established in the contract. If for example, the contract stipulated that the promiser had to give the promisee a product of quality 2 and he delivers a good of quality 1, then as remedy the court force the promiser to deliver a good of quality 2.
• Damages: the court force the breacher to pay a
1) Breach of contract:
Spanish Contract Law provides a broad notion of breach of contract for any behavior that departs from the specified behavior in the contract in any way (time, quality, substance, etc.) or is not specially justified on legal grounds (actions forbidden by the government are not breaches since they are justified on a legal ground).
The general benchmark to determine breach is the contract agreed by the parties themselves, and not external notions. However, external notions are used in important situation such as the consumer's market where the consumer's expectations are the primary benchmarks to assess quality and performance since there is not an explicit contract. External notions are also important in other market, where a third party may have some duty or responsibility over the contract, and therefore, is responsible (at least in part) for any potential breach.
The reason for breach does not exclude the breach. What matters is the breach. The analysis of breach takes place in objective terms. Subjective factors generally do not exclude breach, although they may affect remedies. In certain contractual areas, breach of duty and fault are generally required (professional contracts, management contracts: breach requires violation of a duty of care or a duty of loyalty). In professional contracts, the fault may be of a professional who was in contract with the firm, and in management contracts, it may be the fault of the manager.
2) Remedies:
Spanish Contract Law provides a wide range of general remedies for breach of contract:
• Specific performance: the court forces the breacher to act as it was established in the contract. If for example, the contract stipulated that the promiser had to give the promisee a product of quality 2 and he delivers a good of quality 1, then as remedy the court force the promiser to deliver a good of quality 2.
• Damages: the court force the breacher to pay a