Adbar, L.C. v. New Beginnings C-Star
Missouri Court of Appeals
103 S.W.3d 799 (Mo. Ct. App. 2003)
New Beginnings (defendant), a drug and alcohol rehab center, signed a three-year lease with Adbar (plaintiff) after getting a preliminary green light from the city zoning administrator. The city then denied an occupancy permit, and after New Beginnings won a court fight to get the permit anyway, a local alderman pressured the state to threaten cutting New Beginnings' funding if it moved in. The funding was never actually cut, but New Beginnings' board voted not to occupy the building. Adbar sued for breach of the lease, and New Beginnings raised commercial frustration as a defense; the trial court excused performance, and Adbar appealed.
Whether commercial frustration excuses a party's performance when the intervening event was reasonably foreseeable and did not destroy the value or purpose of the contract.