| Metropolitan Water Board v Dick Kerr and Co Ltd | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | House of Lords |
| Decided | 26 November 1917 |
| Citation | [1918] AC 119 |
| Transcript | |
| Court membership | |
| Judges sitting | Lord Atkinson, Lord Dunedin, Lord Parmoor, Lord Finlay |
| Keywords | |
| Frustration | |
Metropolitan Water Board v Dick Kerr and Co Ltd [1918] AC 119 is an English contract law case, concerning the frustration of an agreement.
In July 1914, Dick, Kerr & Co agreed to build a reservoir in six years for the Metropolitan Water Board (London). The contract said that Dick, Kerr & Co should apply to the engineer for an extension of time in the event of delay "whatsoever and howsoever occasioned".
Two years later on 21 February 1916, due to the war, the Ministry of Munitions ordered Dick, Kerr & Co to stop work and sell their plant. The MWB subsequently sued Dick Kerr to complete the reservoir.
The House of Lords held that the contract was frustrated, because the delay clause was intended to cover temporary difficulties, and not such fundamental changes in the contract’s nature.
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, United States, and was built between 1930 and 1939. Along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, 65 miles (105 km) to the east, and 40 other cities and towns in Greater Boston. The Quabbin also supplies water to three towns west of the reservoir and acts as backup supply for three others. By 1989, it supplied water for 2.5 million people, about 40% of the state's population at the time. It has an aggregate capacity of 412 billion US gallons (1,560 GL) and an area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km2).
In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God, act of nature, or damnum fatale is an event caused by no direct human action for which individual persons are not responsible and cannot be held legally liable for loss of life, injury, or property damage. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in contracts, or it may be an "insured peril" in an insurance policy. In Scots law, the equivalent term is damnum fatale, while most Common law proper legal systems use the term act of God.
The doctrine of impossibility or impossibility of performance or impossibility of performance of contract is a doctrine in contract law.
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Rylands v Fletcher (1868) LR 3 HL 330 is a leading decision by the House of Lords which established a new area of English tort law. It established the rule that one's non-natural use of their land, which leads to another's land being damaged as a result of dangerous things emanating from the land, is strictly liable.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cities, eleven municipal water districts, and one county water authority, that provides water to 19 million people in a 5,200-square-mile (13,000 km2) service area. It was created by an act of the California State Legislature in 1928, primarily to build and operate the Colorado River Aqueduct. Metropolitan became the first contractor to the State Water Project in 1960.
Andrew Graham Murray, 1st Viscount Dunedin, was a Scottish politician and judge. He served as Secretary for Scotland between 1903 and 1905, as Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session between 1905 and 1913 and as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary between 1913 and 1932.
Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England.
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Frustration is an English contract law doctrine that acts as a device to set aside contracts where an unforeseen event either renders contractual obligations impossible, or radically changes the party's principal purpose for entering into the contract. Historically, there had been no way of setting aside an impossible contract after formation; it was not until 1863, and the case of Taylor v Caldwell, that the beginnings of the doctrine of frustration were established. Whilst the doctrine has seen expansion from its inception, it is still narrow in application; Lord Roskill stated that "the doctrine is not lightly to be invoked to relieve contracting parties of the normal consequences of imprudent commercial bargains."
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The Metropolitan District Commission of Connecticut (MDC) is a public not-for-profit municipal corporation chartered by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1929 to provide potable water and sewer systems to the Hartford area. The original agreement tied together the water systems of Hartford, Bloomfield, Newington, Wethersfield, and Windsor, later adding West Hartford, Rocky Hill, and East Hartford to its membership. As of 2023, the MDC serves much of the Greater Hartford region, reaching nearly 500,000 residents in its eight member cities and towns as well as parts of East Granby, Farmington,Glastonbury, Windsor Locks, South Windsor, and Portland. The commission is run by a 29-member board of commissioners; 17 of which are appointed by the member towns, eight by the governor, and four by legislative leaders. The current Chairman of the MDC Board is Donald Currey, the husband of Melody Currey and father of Jeffrey Currey. Its former chairman was William A. DiBella.