Alan’s Saddles and the Breach of Contract

The Situation

Alan’s Saddles is a company that specializes in producing high level seats for racing bicycles. They supply these seats to many top bicycle manufacturers in the industry. The company has always sourced the type of rubber they use for their seats from a company in the Republic of Anaerobia. Recently, Alan’s Saddles entered into a contract with your company for the purchase of 10,000 seats.

The Issue

However, due to turmoil in the Republic of Anaerobia, their supplier is unable to export the necessary rubber for Alan’s Saddles to fulfill the contract with your company. Alan’s has informed you that they cannot complete the contract due to the unavailability of the raw materials.

The Legal Aspect

According to the terms of the contract, if the raw materials can be reasonably obtained from another source, Alan's cannot use the turmoil in Anaerobia as a reason to be discharged from the contract. Since the contract did not specify that Alan’s must exclusively source the materials from the Republic of Anaerobia, your company may have grounds to sue for breach of contract.

Question

What options does your company have in response to Alan’s inability to fulfill the contract due to the unavailability of raw materials?

Answer

Your company can explore the possibility of sourcing the raw materials from one of the other seven available sources to ensure that Alan’s Saddles can fulfill the contract. If this is not feasible, your company may consider taking legal action against Alan’s for breach of contract.