Also known as: acts of commission · affirmative act
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A voluntary affirmative act that renders the obligor unable or apparently unable to perform a contractual duty without committing a breach. This type of conduct supplies the basis for treating a contract as anticipatorily repudiated even before the time for performance arrives.
Anthony Arnold's software company sold its entire development team and specialized equipment to a rival midway through a custom platform project for a bank client. The buyer then informed the bank it would no longer perform custom builds. The bank immediately treated the agreement as repudiated and sued for total breach.
Amelia Amari joined a drug deal knowing her partner carried a firearm and actively participated in the transaction. When the partner fired the weapon, prosecutors charged Amari with aiding and abetting the firearm offense. Her affirmative participation satisfied the conduct element required for liability.
Amber Alonzo's family sought to disconnect her feeding tube after she entered a persistent vegetative state. Hospital staff refused without court approval. The family's affirmative request to withdraw treatment triggered the due process analysis governing refusal of life-sustaining measures.
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Ava Adebayo fled officers in a stolen car, prompting a pursuit that ended when the vehicle crashed and killed a passenger. The estate sued the county alleging the officers' affirmative decision to continue the chase violated due process. The conduct raised the question whether deliberate indifference to life during the chase constituted a constitutional violation.
Abigail Alvarez, a county social worker, received reports that a child was being beaten by his father yet took no steps to remove the child. The child later suffered permanent injury. The mother's suit alleged the worker's affirmative inaction after knowledge of the risk violated due process.
Anika Anand's agency rescinded a prior motor vehicle safety regulation after reviewing comments and data. Manufacturers challenged the rescission as arbitrary. The agency's affirmative decision to revoke the rule required a reasoned explanation supported by the administrative record.
An act of commission occurs when a party takes a voluntary affirmative step that makes performance impossible or apparently impossible, such as selling essential equipment or assets. A statement alone can also repudiate, but the act itself independently triggers the doctrine without needing further words.
Supporting sources
Yes. When a party sells the very equipment, team, or capacity required to perform a contract, that voluntary transfer renders performance apparently impossible and supplies grounds for the other side to treat the contract as repudiated immediately.
Supporting sources
No. The doctrine focuses on whether the voluntary act objectively makes performance impossible or apparently impossible, regardless of subjective intent to breach. The resulting inability itself supplies the repudiation.
Supporting sources
…from ordinary suicide: (1) that she is permanently incapacitated and in pain; (2) that she would bring on her death not by any affirmative act but by merely declining treatment that provides nourishment; and (3) that preventing her from effectuating her presumed wish to die requires violation of her bodily integrity. None of these…