hard · LSAT Reading Comprehension
Contract law distinguishes a condition precedent from a mere promise. A condition precedent is an event that must occur before a party's duty to perform arises at all; if the condition fails, the other party owes nothing, and no breach occurs on either side. A promise, by contrast, is an obligation whose non-fulfillment constitutes a breach, entitling the injured party to damages. Courts have long struggled with contract clauses that are ambiguous as to which category they fall into, since the practical consequences diverge sharply: treating a term as a condition can let a party walk away with no liability at all, while treating the same term as a promise forces that party to pay damages for its failure to materialize, even though the other side never had to perform its own return obligation. Because forfeiture is a harsh result, modern courts apply a strong interpretive preference: where language is genuinely ambiguous, a term is construed as a promise rather than a condition, unless the contract's language makes plain that the parties intended strict conditional forfeiture.
Which of the following scenarios illustrates a court applying the modern interpretive preference described in the passage?
- A subcontractor's payment clause reads 'contractor shall pay upon receipt of payment from the owner,' and after the owner never pays, a court reads this as an unambiguous condition and denies the subcontractor any recovery.
- A builder's vague 'completion to the owner's satisfaction' clause is, facing genuine ambiguity, construed by a court as a good-faith promise, awarding defect damages instead of voiding the whole deal.
- An insurance policy explicitly states that a claim 'shall not be payable unless filed within thirty days,' and a court enforces the deadline as a strict condition after a late filing.
- A supplier and buyer both stipulate in unambiguous terms that delivery by a fixed date is 'a condition precedent to any obligation to pay,' and a court accordingly denies payment when delivery is late.
- A lease specifies that a tenant's renewal option is contingent on timely notice, and finding this language unambiguous, a court strictly denies renewal after notice is filed a single day late.
Sign up free to see the explanation and track your rank →
More LSAT Reading Comprehension practice
- The author's use of the word "demonstrates" most strongly suggests that the author's attit
- Which one of the following most accurately describes the primary purpose of the second par
- Which one of the following most accurately describes the author's attitude toward the pres
- Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
- Which one of the following most accurately describes the author's attitude toward true cri
- Which one of the following most accurately describes the primary function of the second pa
- Which one of the following most accurately describes the author's attitude toward urban mi
- Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?