Cantamessa v Sanderson

In *Cantamessa v Sanderson*, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered a dispute between a vendor and a purchaser concerning a contract for the sale of land. The purchaser had purported to terminate the contract, and the vendor sought to enforce it.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the purchaser's purported termination of the contract was valid. This required the Court to determine whether the vendor had committed a breach of contract that entitled the purchaser to terminate, or whether the purchaser's actions constituted a repudiation of the contract.

The Court found that the vendor had not committed a fundamental breach of the contract. Instead, it held that the purchaser's conduct, in purporting to terminate the contract without a valid basis, amounted to a repudiation of their contractual obligations. The Court applied the principles of contract law relating to breach and repudiation, emphasizing that a party is entitled to terminate a contract only where there has been a breach of a condition or a serious breach of an intermediate term, or where the other party has evinced an intention no longer to be bound by the contract.

The Court of Appeal accordingly allowed the vendor's appeal, setting aside the orders of the primary judge and ordering that the contract be specifically performed.