Nicki has operated her restaurant, The Mighty Fraser, on the waterfront of New Westminster since she graduated from the Hospitality Management program at Douglas College. It had always been her dream to have her own business. She found the perfect spot right at the New Westminster Quay, signed a 10-year lease and opened her doors on April 1, 2011. Nicki agreed to pay a monthly rent of $25,000 to the building owner, Inderjit Sidhu.

The Mighty Fraser was a great success almost from the day it opened because of the good food and friendly atmosphere created by Nicki. After only two years in business, Nicki considered opening a second restaurant, The Mightier Fraser, at a nearby location. She remembers being worried at the time that the second location might not be granted a liquor licence. Her lawyer, Saul Steinberg, assured her that he had inserted a term into the lease agreement that would take care of that potential problem. The term ensured that Nicki would not be bound to the contract if the liquor licence was not approved. As it turned out, the licence was not approved so Nicki never did open the second location.

The Mighty Fraser was situated right on the Fraser River and her neighbour, Ralph Glum, was always worried about the possibility of a flood. Ralph owned a small bakery cafe but it was, funny enough, a meteorite that ended up destroying Ralph's bakery cafe and not a flood. The meteorite struck at 3:30 am just hours before Ralph arrived for work and completely obliterated the entire cafe including all the flour that Ralph had just received the day before. Fortunately, no one was around at the time so there were no casualties. You will also be happy to know that Ralph had taken his pet tortoise, Harry, home with him that night (usually Harry hung out in his tank at the bakery cafe.)

The day before the meteorite crashed into the cafe, Ralph received a large shipment of baking supplies from Flynn's Flour but the order was not quite complete. Ralph had ordered a total of 1,000 large bags of all-purpose wheat flour (at $15 a bag) as well as another 200 large bags of specialty flours such as almond flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour, and more (all at $50 a bag). Acknowledging the shortfall, Flynn's Flour said it would send over the shortfall in a couple of days (40 bags of the all purpose flour and 8 bags of the specialty flours.) Unfortunately, the meteorite struck before Flynn's Flour could send over the remaining bags of flour.

The pandemic and all of the government mandated closures have seriously hurt business for Nicki at The Mighty Fraser. Back in the Fall, Horst and Ursula had booked The Mighty Fraser for their sixtieth (60th) wedding anniversary celebration with forty (40) family and friends. Horst and Ursula were irate when Nicki advised them that she was cancelling the event. The reason for the cancellation was the chief provincial health officer, Bonnie Henry, had ordered that all restaurants could only stay open for delivery and take-out orders. Horst and Ursula advised Nicki that she had breached the contract and ruined their momentous celebration and told Nicki that she could expect to hear from their lawyer.

In December 2019, Nicki entered into a 2-year contract with Fraser Fisheries to provide The Mighty Fraser with a steady supply of local fish (mainly various kinds of salmon and halibut.) The agreement was for Fraser Fisheries to provide 300 kg of salmon and halibut on a weekly basis for the amount of $5,000 per week. Business declined so dramatically with the pandemic closures that last April Nicki exercised a clause in the contract allowing her to end the contract by giving Fraser Fisheries one (1) month's written notice.

At the beginning of last year, Nicki was excited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Mighty Fraser this year (April 2021) but has instead decided to close the business. Last month, Nicki advised her landlord, Inderjit, she will not be staying in the premises after March 31, 2021. Nicki always believes in paying her debts on time and never once was late for a rent payment for the entire ten (10) years.

NOTE: For this question, you are NOT required to set out your answers using the approach of Issue, Legal Principles, Application, Conclusion.

Question:

You have learned that there are four (4) general ways that a contract can be discharged and there are specific ways within each general manner of discharge. In the scenario above, there are five (5) contracts that have been discharged in one way or another. For each contract, identify:

• one of the four general ways that the contract has been discharged;
• the specific way that the contract has been discharged;
• the reason(s) that you think the contract has been discharged.