Question

Millie, a famous singer, entered into a contract to perform at Tanya’s night club during the month of December. Tanya advertised that Millie would be performing at Tanya’s nightclub and obtained many advance reservations from customers for the performance. In November, Raisa, the owner of another nightclub, convinced Millie to breach her contract with Tanya and to perform at Raisa’s nightclub instead during the month of December. On November 15, Millie told Tanya that she would not be available to perform at Tanya’s nightclub as planned. When Tanya found out that Millie would be performing at Raisa’s nightclub instead, Tanya became furious and immediately called her lawyer.

Instead of the facts above, assume that Mille was in a serious car accident over Thanksgiving weekend and hospitalized for the month of December. She contacted Tanya and let her know that she could not perform since she was in the hospital. Tanya sues Mille for breach of contract. Judgment for whom? Discuss.

Answer 1

When Millie signed a contract with Tanya to perform in December, but broke the contract on 15 November just because she got a better offer from other club is totally illegal and if the case goes to the court then the decision should come in favour of Tanya and Millie would be fined and may be given some other punishment. To break the contract due to not very serious reason is against professional ethics.

But if we assume that Millie was in a serious car accident in mid November and was hospitalized for whole December than it is obvious and reasonable to break the contract because she is not available during the time of contract, also it will neither be illegal nor against professional ethics to break the contract in such an unavoidable situation. In this case if Tanya goes to court then the Judgement may not be in her favour and she might or might not get any compensation for that.