What remedies are available to a party to a contract where the other party fails to complete the entire contract?

Saskatchewan, Canada


The following excerpt is from Boreen v. Longpre, 2003 SKPC 21 (CanLII):

[53] If the parties to a contract agree to substitute a new contract for the original one (or if it can be implied from their conduct that they have substituted a new contract for the original one) and one of the parties does not fulfill his or her obligations/promises on the new contract then the injured party can treat this as a breach of the new contract and sue on the basis of contractual quantum meruit upon the new contract and recover the value of work done in performance of the new contract . The injured party is entitled to refuse to proceed further under the contract, to abandon it and to sue for the value of work done where the owner prevents him or her from performing the work or where the owner fails to perform his contractual obligations before the other party completes the whole or entire contract. (See Cragnoline v. Soughwick, (1916) 27 O.W.R. 445.) It is important to note that this liability arises from a truly contractual relationship. It presumes that parties have entered into a valid contract but that they have not agreed upon a price for services to be rendered by one party to the other party. The court then implies a term for reasonable payment for work done.

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