Application of Defence of Realm Act to Broken Contract.
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[2966] (Grievance).—We cannot agree that you are entitled to take advantage in your defence of the provisions of the Defence of the Realm Act (No. 2). The essence of any right to plead that Act as justification for the non-fulfilment of a contract is that the
interference with the contract has of necessity been imposed upon the party who fails by reason of his necessary compliance with a requirement, regulation or restriction by the Admiralty, or the Army Council, under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, or the above-mentioned supplementary Act. It cannot apply to the case of a man who at his own private solicitation has obtained Government orders, and has then entirely put aside his private contracts, despite the fact that there has been no Government compulsion or interference which has compelled that man to take the Government contract. We are here quoting from a decision which was given by Mr. Justice Shearinan at the Manchester Assizes at the beginning of last month, when Messrs. Sheridan and Co., motor carriers, of Hindley, near Wigan, successfully claimed for breach of warranty and damages in relation to the
purchase of a motor chassis. The pleas to which we have referred were unsuccessful, on the ground that the Government business was sought by the defending company, and not imposed upon it without option.