2021 Contract Law Question 4 — LawShortcut Independent Model Answer
Phil is promised €3,000 for a full list of jobs to be finished in three weeks, falls ill in week two, and returns to find Clare has hired someone else and says he will get nothing. The question looks like a straightforward entire-contract problem, and turns instead on prevention of performance.
Scenario summary
Phil turned up at Clare’s door one day, looking for work about the house. She had a long list of jobs, and they agreed that if he did the full list she would pay him €3,000. She made one condition plain: it had to be finished within 3 weeks, before a large party she was holding.
At the end of the first week Phil became unwell. The hospital told him he might have a rare disease, with results about a week away. He decided to rest for that week, confident that if they came back clear the final week would be enough to finish.
None of this reached Clare, and his phone went unanswered. Her final voicemail told him she had taken the silence for abandonment: she had engaged someone else to have the jobs done before the party, and he would not be paid a penny for the week he had already worked.
Phil was given the all-clear. Returning to the house to resume, he was shocked to find someone else doing the jobs.
Candidates are asked to advise Phil as to his legal position under the law of contract.
This is a LawShortcut scenario summary written in our own words. For the exact examined wording, use the official King’s Inns paper linked above.
What this model answer covers
Issues and structure addressed in the full LawShortcut model answer:
- Issue 1 — Is this an entire contract?
- Issue 2 — Did Phil's illness frustrate the contract?
- Issue 3 — Was Phil ready and willing, or had he abandoned?
- Issue 4 — Clare's prevention of performance
- Overall advice to Phil
- Where the 25 marks live — 7 entire contract, 5 frustration, 4 ready and willing, 6 prevention, 3 remedies and advice
- Common ways to lose marks
- Authorities relied on
- The reusable answer structure
Read the complete LawShortcut model answer to this question — reading the question, issue spotting, the applicable law, application to the facts and conclusions — inside the King’s Inns Contract Law Model Answer Vault.
Part of the King’s Inns Contract Law Model Answer Vault — 30 independently authored model answers, 2020—2025.
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