Contracts are not merely business documents but in fact are legally enforceable documents. A representation or a warranty given in a legally executed contract is binding on the parties and cannot be treated as a mere puffery given in an advertisement, the performance of which can be excused. If you represent to deliver goods of a particular quality in an agreement, you are legally bound to deliver such goods and if for some forsaken reason the goods delivered, does not match the quality promised under a contract, you will be breaching a contract. We, in Kontract Genie, have often run into client comments such as, “but I did deliver goods”, “The delay in delivery was caused because of heavy rainfall”, “the goods are just a little different than what I promised” and so on. Unfortunately, if a business owner had promised to deliver goods on a certain time and place or as per the specific quality, without any caveats, you are much likely to land into legal disputes.
There are many other countless ways by which one can breach a contract, a contract can be breached by simply not honouring the terms, altering the terms without proper process, breach of contract due to delivery of improper goods, breach of contract due to failure to pay, breach due to delay in delivery. But a court of law does not treat a breach of contract as a simple white or black issue. Love with. As the attorneys in Kontract Genie would argue that a failure in performance or delay in delivery in standalone cannot be treated as a breach of contract. Such events of breach has to be consistent and read together with other terms of the contract, in order to achieve a judicious interpretation. But an advantageous interpretation can only happen if the contract narrates what would constitute a “breach” and how will it be tackled by the parties. This is where a careful articulation and drafting is needed by a contracts attorney.
A good contract details out a major breach or minor breach and allows both the parties to take proper actions without compromising on the business involved. A breach of contract may not always land a party to huge legal consequences, if pre-agreed consequences are already laid down in the contract. Such terms in a contract allows party to take control of things and decide what would work best for them. This saves both time (by avoiding the long litigation process) and money (by avoiding huge legal fees) for the contracting parties and allows the business relationship to grow and not turn bitter