Specific Performance

Unit Six Assignment: Specific Performance

by

Corey Anderson

Kaplan University

MT311-03

Professor Alexander Thompson

April 16th, 2010

A court may grant Specific Performance as a remedy for the breach of a contract in some cases. Specific Performance states that an equitable remedy should be granted in the case of a breached contract for a promised act where monetary damages will not enable a buyer to obtain identical substitutes from the market. For our assignment, we are given four scenarios to look at and decide whether Specific Performance can be applied to any. The following two cases fit into the Specific Performance guidelines.

Tarrington contracts to sell her house and lot to Rainier. Then, on finding another buyer willing to pay a higher purchase price, she refuses to deed the property to Rainier. Tarrington breaches her contract with Rainier in hopes of making a larger profit by selling to someone else. This normally would be a smart practice, except for the fact that she had already entered into a binding contract with Rainier. Rainier is now in a position that leaves him out of a house and a lot that he has contracted. Tarrington is not able to give Rainer the same house and land in a different location. She is also unable to compensate Rainier monetarily as a legal remedy for the breach of contract. This scenarios wording is a little tricky, due to the fact that the case explained states that Tarrington found another buyer willing to pay more but did not say the transaction has been conducted. This is important because if the land had already been sold to another then Specific Performance would be unavailable because the property was already sold to someone else. Rainier still has time to act on the breach of contract and have the courts make Tarrington sell him the land. Otherwise, if the transaction did go through with the other party monetary damages would be awarded and not Specific Performance.

The other case that...