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contract performance

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 240 U.S. 156 - Carnegie Steel Company v. United States · 1916Most cited · 126 citing opinions

impossibility

If what is agreed to be done is possible and lawful, it must be done. Difficulty or improbability of accomplishing the undertaking will not avail the defendant. It must be shown that the thing cannot by any means be affected. Nothing short of this will excuse nonperformance. Ability to perform a contract is of its very essence.

How often courts cite the case defining “contract performance”

191019201940196019802000201043

Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “contract performance” — 126 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.