Corbin on Massachusetts Contracts

Corbin on Massachusetts Contracts is a unique and comprehensive explanation of the law of contracts in Massachusetts, supported by ample citations to, and discussions about, pertinent judicial authorities applying Massachusetts law, as well as pertinent statutory law. Importantly, this treatise underscores how Massachusetts law parts company with other trends. The book is written so that the user can easily reference the multi-volume Corbin on Contracts treatise that is the authoritative legal treatise relied on by courts in resolving contract disputes.

Massachusetts law largely follows the modern trends in many respects; in significant ways, however, Massachusetts has developed its own approach and results. Some major examples of these “exceptions” include:

• Outside of the commercial law context, Massachusetts contract law generally does not recognize the doctrine of anticipatory repudiation.

• The Commonwealth is among the minority of American jurisdictions that retains important elements of the sealed contract doctrine.

• Decisional law in Massachusetts holds that an oral modification of a written contract within the statute of frauds cannot be wholly or in part the foundation of an action

• The majority position held by most states is that full performance by one party, regardless of how long it took to achieve such complete performance, takes the contract out of the statute of frauds. Massachusetts, however, takes the minority position that the statute bars enforcement despite full performance by one party.

• A disclaimer of consequential damages is enforceable even though the limited repair or replacement remedy has failed of its essential purpose.

• In the realm of pre-judgment interest, there has been a historical distinction between liquidated and unliquidated debts, but Massachusetts does not abide by such a distinction

• Massachusetts courts enforce consumer contracts formed via the “money now, terms later”—or what we have termed the rolling contract—scenario.

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