Week 13 - Section 62 - 65

62. If the parties to a contract agree to substitute a new contract for it, or to rescind or alter it, the original contract need not be performed.  
Illustrations  
(a) A owes money to B under a contract. It is agreed between A, B and C that B shall thenceforth accept C as his debtor, instead of A. The old debt of A to B is at an end, and a new debt from C to B has been contracted.  
(b) A owes B 10,000 Taka. A enters into an arrangement with B, and gives B a mortgage of his (A's) estate for 5,000 Taka, in place of the debt of 10,000 Taka. This is a new contract and extinguishes the old.  
(c) A owes B 1,000 Taka under a contract. B owes C 1,000 Taka. B orders A to credit C with 1,000 Taka in his books, but C does not assent to the arrangement. B still owes C 1,000 Taka, and no new contract has been entered into.  
Promisee may dispense with or remit performance of promise  
63. Every promisee may dispense with or remit, wholly or in part, the performance of the promise made to him or may extend the time for such performance, or may accept instead of it any satisfaction which he thinks fit.    
Illustrations  
(a) A promises to paint a picture for B. B afterwards forbids him to do so. A is no longer bound to perform the promise.  
(b) A owes B 5,000 Taka. A pays to B, and B accepts, in satisfaction of the whole debt, 2,000 Taka paid at the time and place at which the 5,000 Taka were payable. The whole debt is discharged.  
(c) A owes B 5,000 Taka. C pays to B 1,000 Taka, and B accepts them, in satisfaction of his claim on A. This payment is a discharge of the whole claim.  
(d) A owes B, under a contract, a sum of money, the amount of which has not been ascertained. A, without ascertaining the amount, gives to B, and B, in satisfaction thereof, accepts, the sum of 2,000 Taka. This is a discharge of the whole debt, whatever may be its amount.  
(e) A owes B 2,000 Taka and is also indebted to other creditors. A makes an arrangement with his creditors, including B, to pay them a composition of eight annas in the Taka upon their respective demands. Payment to be of 1,000 Taka is a discharge of B's demand.  
Consequences of rescission of voidable contract  
64. When a person at whose option a contract is voidable rescinds it, the other party thereto need not perform any promise therein contained in which he is promisor. The party rescinding a voidable contract shall, if he have received any benefit thereunder from another party to such contract, restore such benefit, so far as may be, to the person from whom it was received.  
Obligation of person who has received advantage under void agreement or contract that becomes void  
65. When an agreement is discovered to be void, or when a contact becomes void, any person who has received any advantage under such agreement or contract is bound to restore it, or to make compensation for it to the person from whom he received it.  
Illustrations  
(a) A pays B 1,000 Taka in consideration of B's promising to marry C, A's daughter. C is dead at the time of promise. The agreement is void, but B must repay A the 1,000 Taka.  
(b) A contracts with B to deliver to him 250 maunds of rice before the first of May. A delivers 130 maunds only before that day, and none after. B retains the 130 maunds after the first of May. He is bound to pay A for them.  
(c) A, a singer, contracts with B, the manager of a theatre, to sing at his theatre for two nights in every week during the next two months, and B engages to 
pay her a hundred Taka for each night's performance. On the sixth night, A wilfully absents herself from the theatre, and B, in consequence, rescinds the contract. B must pay A for the five nights on which she had sung.  
(d) A contracts to sing for B at a concert for 1,000 Taka which are paid in advance. A is too ill to sing. A is not bound to make compensation to B for the loss of the profits which B would have made if A had been able to sing, but must refund to B the 1,000 Taka paid in advance. 

Download Files

contract-act-1872-1.pdf (0.67 MB )