Contract Law - Week 16 Lecture Duress Vitiating Factors . Duress and Undue Influence are "vitiating factors" - if have a contract that would normally be valid, if there are issues that the contract was entered into under duress or undue influence then this would be a vitiating factors . They make an otherwise valid contract "voidable" (not void). . The "innocent" party can choose whether to continue with the contract or not. Origin of Duress · Common law concept. . Its origin is in the use of physical violence or threatened violence to make someone enter into a contract. o Barton v Armstrong [1976] AC 104 " Chairman of company threatened to kill the managing director of the company if he did not execute a deal for the company " C had no option but to go into the deal " Held if the threat was part of the reason C went into the contract, it doesn't matter that it wasn't the predominate reason, the contract was tainted by duress . Victim did not really agree to the contract because his or her "will was overborne". . Duress could be extended to threats to property Definition "Physical threat or other illegitimate pressure being used for an improper objective which is sufficiently serious to vitiate the consent of the other party" Illegitimate pressure - R v Attorney General . Lord Hoffman- started by referring to the decision of the H of L in Universe Tankships Inc of Monrovia v ITWF, The Universe Sentinel [1983] 1 AC 366. . In The Universe Sentinel, Lord Scarman identified two elements to duress o (1) pressure amounting to compulsion of the will o (2) the illegitimacy of that pressure - subjective test . As regards the illegitimacy of the pressure, two issues arise o (1) the nature of the pressure o (2) the nature of the demand which the pressure is applied to support. . As regards the nature of the pressure, where the threat is to carry out some unlawful act, the pressure would generally be considered illegitimate . But this does not necessarily mean that the threat of a lawful action would automatically be legitimate because the second issue could arise. . The second issue looks at the objective of the threat. . If you make a lawful threat but the pressure is unlawful this will still amount to duress
Objective of the threat . Lord Hoffmann quoted Lord Atkin in Thorne v Motor Trade Association [1937] AC 797 . "The ordinary blackmailer normally threatens to do what he has the perfect right to do, namely communicate some compromising conduct to a person whose knowledge is likely to affect the person threatened ... What he has to justify is not the threat, but the demand of money" Economic Duress · Threat to break a contract - o Occidental Worldwide Inv. v Skibs, The Siboen and The Sibotre [1976] 1 Lloyd's Rep 293 " Concerned 2 ships Hirers wanted a reduction in the