California First-Year Law Students' Exam (Baby Bar) — MCContractsEasy
A musician agrees to perform at a private party for $1,000. Three days before the party, the musician's leg is broken in an unexpected accident, making it impossible to perform. The party host demands that the musician find a replacement or pay damages. What is the musician's best defense against a breach of contract claim?
- AImpossibility of performance, because the musician's injury prevents personal service.
- BMutual mistake, because neither party anticipated the accident.
- CFrustration of purpose, because the accident made the performance pointless.
- DCommercial impracticability, because the cost of finding a replacement is too high.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Impossibility of performance, because the musician's injury prevents personal service.
Impossibility of performance can discharge a contract when an unexpected event makes performance objectively impossible. In contracts for personal services, the death or incapacity of the specific individual who was to perform the service often creates impossibility, as the performance cannot be delegated. The musician's broken leg makes it objectively impossible for them to perform.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Mutual mistake relates to an erroneous belief about a basic assumption existing at the time of contracting, not a supervening event.
- C. Frustration of purpose applies when the *purpose* of the contract becomes valueless, not when performance itself is impossible.
- D. Commercial impracticability applies when performance becomes extremely and unreasonably difficult or expensive, not necessarily impossible. Here, it's a physical impossibility for the musician.
Impossibility of Performance
A doctrine that discharges a party's contractual duties when an unforeseen event makes performance objectively impossible, not just more difficult or expensive.
- Performance must be objectively impossible (cannot be done by anyone).
- Event must be unforeseen at the time of contracting.
- Examples: death/incapacity of specific person for personal services, destruction of unique subject matter, new law making performance illegal.
Memory trick: The law steps in to end the contract when fate intervenes.