Resolution, Resolutory Condition

RESOLUTION - The act by which a contract which existed and was good, is rendered null.

Resolution differs essentially from rescission. The former presupposes the contract to have been valid, and it is owing to a cause posterior to the agreement that the resolution takes place; while rescission, on the contrary, supposes that some vice or defect annulled the contract from the beginning. Resolution may be by consent of the parties or by the decision of a competent tribunal; rescission must always be by the judgment of a court.

RESOLUTORY CONDITION - On which has for its object, when accomplished, the revocation of the principal obligation; for example, I will sell you my crop of cotton, if my ship America does not arrive in the United States, within six months. My ship arrives in one month, my contract with you is revoked.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.