Force Mineure and Contracts That Aren't Performed Because of Epidemics

I can't give a substantive legal analysis, but I dibs the label.

"Force majeure," of course, means (to quote Black's Law Dictionary):

An event or effect that can be neither anticipated nor controlled; esp., an unexpected event that prevents someone from doing or completing something that he or she had agreed or officially planned to do. • The term includes both acts of nature (e.g., floods and hurricanes) and acts of people (e.g., riots, strikes, and wars).

I assume that disputes over contracts that aren't performed (or aren't completely performed) because of the coronavirus will be filtered through the contract law rules that have arisen with regard to force majeure (though those rules are pretty complex, and can't be easily captured in one term, I think). But though I don't know the subject well enough to opine, I hereby dub it force mineure, to refer to the tiny size (though not tiny power) of our adversaries.

Comments

[santamonica811]

Not to be confused with Force Manure. ("I refuse to perform the agreed-upon terms, because I signed a shitty contract.")

[santamonica811]

(...or would it have been better with a more-clean "...crappy contract" instead of my original, earthier, term?)

[Black Richard]

s/I dibs the label/I call dibs on the label

[Dr. Ed]

My prediction is that it's going to be like when the banks failed, and the FDIC had to be created in order for people to trust them again. There will be some sort of governmental bailout/handout and an aspect of that will eliminate these claims.

Now as to how our civil liberties will come out of this, that I do worry about...