CONTRACTS -ANTICIPATORY BREACH - RECOVERY OF THE PRESENT WORTH OF UNMATURED INSTALLMENTS OF A DEBT

Authors

Abstract

It is generally agreed that recovery may be had in one suit not only of the damages suffered up to the date of the writ but also of prospective damages for the non-performance of that which is not yet due, whenever a defendant has committed a partial material breach of an executory bilateral contract or of a unilateral contract to do something other than to pay a sum of money. The same conclusion is reached whenever a defendant has repudiated his promise after the time for beginning performance has arrived. These propositions are accepted even in those jurisdictions which do not recognize the doctrine of anticipatory breach. However, it has been asserted that these principles are not applicable in the case of a unilateral obligation to pay money. Thus Professor Williston, after referring to the general principle, distinguishes this type of case, saying," . . . but an obligation to pay money, originally unilateral, or becoming so by performance on the part of the creditor, remains after breach an obligation to pay that sum of money, and if by its terms the money is payable in installments, no breach, however serious, as to earlier installments can resolve the creditor's right into a single claim for damages on the entire contract."

Recommended Citation

CONTRACTS -ANTICIPATORY BREACH - RECOVERY OF THE PRESENT WORTH OF UNMATURED INSTALLMENTS OF A DEBT, 31 Mich. L. Rev. 526 (1933).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol31/iss4/6