Covid 19, Frustration of Purpose and Impossibility
Frustration of purpose refers to situations in which performance of a contract becomes worthless to a contracting party.
mpossibility—or impracticability—is essentially the inverse of frustration of purpose; instead of the purpose of the contract being made impossible, it is the actual performance of the contract that is impossible. Much like frustration of purpose, there are strict requirements that must be met to invoke this defense, namely the occurrence of a supervening event, the non-occurrence of which was a basic assumption on which both parties made the contract. Interestingly enough, the first example of impossibility or impracticability found in the Restatement involves the closing of a port due to a quarantine. Clearly the Restatement contemplates the use of the defense of impossibility where delivery of goods has been made impossible by quarantine restrictions.
