Canadian Industrial Alcohol Co. v. Dunbar Molasses Co.
New York Court of Appeals
258 N.Y. 194 (1932)
Canadian Industrial Alcohol (plaintiff) ordered roughly 1.5 million gallons of molasses from Dunbar Molasses (defendant) for delivery after April 1, 1928, but Dunbar delivered only 344,083 gallons, blaming its supplier, the National Sugar Refinery, for reducing output; Dunbar had never actually entered into a contract with the refinery to guarantee that supply, nor did it disclose this gap in supply security to Canadian. Canadian sued for breach, Dunbar argued its duty was conditioned on the refinery's continued production and thus discharged by impossibility, and the trial court ruled for Canadian; Dunbar appealed.
Whether a seller's performance is excused by impossibility when the seller's inability to perform stemmed from relying on an undisclosed and uncontracted third-party supplier's output, rather than from a genuinely extreme or unavoidable circumstance.