UT · jury_instructions
MUJI 2d CV2118
Anticipatory breach.
When a party is supposed to perform his contract obligations at some time in the future, that party breaches the contract if he indicates to the other party that when the time comes for him to perform his obligations, he will not do so. The contract obligations must be important to fulfilling the purpose of the contract. It is not a breach of the contract if the party merely indicates that he doesn't want to perform his contract obligations, or that he has misgivings about the contract. Rather, the party must indicate positively and unequivocally that he does not intend to perform his contract obligations.
A party who has indicated that he is not going to perform his contract obligations is allowed to change his mind before his performance is due, but only if he lets the other party know before the other party files a lawsuit or otherwise relies on the statements and significantly changes his position.
[Name of defendant] breached the contract if you find that [he]
(1) made statements that could be reasonably interpreted to mean that he positively and unequivocally refused to perform his contract obligations, and
(2) did not change his mind and notify [name of plaintiff] before [name of plaintiff] either filed a lawsuit or otherwise relied on the statements and significantly changed his position.
Provenance
- Source
- legacy.utcourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-22
- Edition
- 2026-08-21
- Content hash
b9b394855e89108e71932d3d9939114389c31a07cf4dc876643b52baa9ebc775
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