Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Breach

n. A violation or infraction of a law or obligation <breach of warranty> <breach of duty>. - breach

active breach of contract.

See BREACH OF CONTRACT.

anticipatory breach

A breach of contract caused by a party's anticipatory repudiation, i.e., unequivocally indicating that the party will not perform when performance is due. 9 Under these circumstances, the nonbreaching party may elect to treat the repudiation as an immediate breach and sue for damages. -Also termed constructive breach. See REPUDIATION. "A repudiation by one party may occur before the time for performance has arrived. Such a repudiation is called an anticipatory breach, and it gives the innocent party the option of treating the contract as terminated at once and suing for damages immediately if he chooses or, alternatively, of waiting until the time of performance has arrived, and then again calling on the other party to perform. Should he choose the latter course he runs the risk that the contract may possibly become frustrated in the interim, in which case he will have lost his right to damages." P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction to the Law of Contract 298 (3d ed. 1981).

breach of arrest

A military offense committed by an officer who, being under arrest in quarters, leaves those quarters without a superior officer's authorization. See arrest in quarters under ARREST.

breach of close

The unlawful or unauthorized entry on another person's land; a common-law trespass. - Also termed breaking a close. See CLOSE.

breach of contract

Violation of a contractual obligation, either by failing to perform one's own promise or by interfering with another party's performance.

breach of covenant

The violation of an express or implied promise, usu. in a contract, either to do or not to do an act. See COVENANT.

breach of duty

The violation of a legal or moral obligation; the failure to act as the law obligates one to act. See NEGLIGENCE.

breach of peace

See BREACH OF THE PEACE, breach of prison. See PRISON BREAKING

breach of promise

The violation of one's word or undertaking, esp. a promise to marry. See HEARTBALM STATUTE.

breach of the peace

The criminal offense of creating a public disturbance or engaging in disorderly conduct, particularly by an unnecessary or distracting noise. - Also termed breach of peace; disturbing the peace; disturbance of the peace. See DISORDERLY CONDUCT. "A breach of the peace takes place when either an assault is committed on an individual or public alarm and excitement is caused. Mere annoyance or insult is not enough: thus at common law a householder could not give a man into custody for violently and persistently ringing his door-bell. It is the particular duty of a magistrate or police officer to preserve the peace unbroken; hence if he has reasonable cause to believe that a breach of the peace is imminent he may be justified in committing an assault or effecting an arrest." R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts 131 (17th ed. 1977). "The beginning of our criminal justice was concerned very largely with the problem of keeping the peace. Because of this fact all early indictments included some such phrase as 'against the peace of the King'; and until recently statutory provisions for simplification, in dictments in this country were thought to be incomplete without some such conclusion as 'against the peace and dignity of the state.' As a result of this history all indictable offenses are sometimes regarded as deeds which violate the public peace, and hence in a loose sense the term 'breach of the peace' is regarded as a synonym for crime." Rollin 10 I. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 477 (3d ed. 1982).

breach of trust

A trustee's violation of either the trust's terms or the trustee's general fiduciary obligations; the violation of a duty that equity imposes on a trustee, whether the violation was willful, fraudulent, negligent, or inadvertent. e A breach of trust subjects the trustee to removal and creates personal liability.

breach of warranty

1.A breach of an express or implied warranty relating to the title, quality, content, or condition of goods sold. UCC § 2-312. 2. Insurance. WARRANTY (3).

constructive breach

See anticipatory breach under BREACH OF CONTRACT.

continuing breach

A breach of contract that endures for a considerable time or is repeated at short intervals.

efficient breach

See BREACH OF CONTRACT.

efficient-breach theory

Contracts. The view hat a party should be allowed to breach a ;ntract and pay damages, if doing so would be :ore economically efficient than performing ;L 1lder the contract. * This relatively modern 11eOTy stems from the law-and-economics movement. See BREACH OF CONTRACT.

immaterial breach

See partial breach under BREACH OF CONTRACT.

immediate breach

A breach that entitles the nonbreaching party to sue for damages immediately.

inducement of breach of contract.

See TOR' TIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS.

material breach

See BREACH OF CONTRACT.

partial breach

A breach of contract that is less significant than a material breach and that gives the aggrieved party a right to damages, but does not usu. excuse that party from performance. - Also termed immaterial breach.

passive breach of contract

See BREACH OF CONTRACT.

pound-breach

Hist. The offense of breaking a pound for the purpose of taking out something that has been impounded.

prison breach

A prisoner's forcible breaking and departure from a place of lawful confinement; the offense of escaping from confinement in a prison or jail. ( Prison breach has traditionally been distinguished from escape by the presence of force; this distinction has been abandoned in some jurisdictions. - Also termed prison breaking. Cf. ESCAPE (2). "Breach of prison by the offender himself, when committed for any cause, was felony at the common law: or even conspiring to break it. But this severity is mitigated by the statute de frangentibus prisonam, I Edw. II, which enacts that no person shall have judgment of life or member, for breaking prison, unless committed for some capital offence. So that to break prison, when lawfully committed for any treason or felony, remains still a felony as at the common law; and to break prison, when lawfully confined upon any other inferior charge, is still punishable as a high misdemeanor by fine and imprisonment." 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 130-31 (1769).

quasi-trustee. One who benefits from a breach of a trust to a great enough degree to become liable as a trustee.

right of entry for breach of condition

See POWER OF TERMINATION.

spouse-breach

See ADULTERY.

total breach

A material breach of contract that gives rise to a claim for damages based on the injured party's remaining rights to performance under the contract.