§ 19-19 Contract - Repudiation as Anticipatory Breach

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 19-19 Contract - Repudiation as Anticipatory Breach

A repudiation of a contract before the time for performance, which amounts to a refusal to perform it at any time, gives the adverse party the option to treat the entire contract as broken and to sue immediately for damages as for a total breach. In other words, if one party to a contract repudiates his duties thereunder prior to the time designated for performance and before he has received all of the consideration due him thereunder, such repudiation entitles the nonrepudiating party to claim damages for total breach. There is no necessity in such case for a tender of performance, or compliance with conditions precedent, or waiting for the time of performance to arrive, although this is optional. No notice need be given that the repudiation is treated as a breach.

The elements of repudiation necessary to exercise the election of suing immediately are that the plaintiff's had performed all of the conditions up to the time of the repudiation and were ready, able, and willing to complete performance pursuant to the contract except for defendant's expressed unequivocal repudiation that has not been retracted, and that as a result of defendant's repudiation, plaintiff's have suffered damage.

Where an obligor repudiates a duty before he has committed a breach by non-performance and before he has received all of the agreed exchange for it, his repudiation alone gives rise to a claim for damages for total breach. A party's duty to pay damages for total breach by repudiation is discharged if it appears after the breach that:

(1) there would

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