Passage 2
Most valid contracts are obeyed by both parties. Each does what was promised, and the contract is dissolved by being carried out. Sometimes a contract will not be fulfilled because both parties agree to end it. Occasionally the law will excuse one party from meeting an agreement. (For example, bankruptcy frees a person from credit agreements, and death or serious illness is a valid excuse for not fulfilling a contract for personal services. )But where one party has no legal excuse for failure to live up to the terms of a contract, the other party can claim breach of contract.
The essence of a contract is that the law will enforce the promise made. Three enforcement alternatives-discharge, damages ,and specific performance- are open to a person whose contract has been breached by the other party. We can illustrate the protection afforded by law with a hypothetical example. Nick Santo, a builder, contracts to buy 2,000 feet of pine board from the Zeller Lumberyard. The contract stipulates that the price for the board is to be $2 per foot and that delivery must be made by January 25. But on January 10 the lumberyard calls Santo and tells him that another contractor has offered to buy all of the yard's lumber at $2. 50 per foot. Zeller tells Santo that he must pay the higher price or wait until February 15 for delivery. The builder has the following options:
Discharge. When one party violates the terms of the agreement , the other party is under no obligation to continue with his or her end of the contract. In other words, the second party is discharged from the contract. Santo is free to buy his wood from another lumberyard. If Zeller goes ahead and delivers the wood at the later date, Santo does not have to accept it.
Damages. A party has the right to sue in court for damages that result from the other party's failure to fulfill a contract. The damages awarded usually reflect the direct loss of profit resulting from the nonperformance. If Santo had to pay another yard a higher price to get lumber, he would be entitled to collect the difference from Zeller, plus court costs. lf Zeller's failure to deliver the wood as contracted caused Santo to lose a large contract or a good customer, the court might force Zeller to pay damages far exceeding the value of the wood itself.
Specific performance. A party can be compelled to live up to the terms of the contract if money damages would not be adequate had agreed to sell not pine board but one-of-a-kind wood paneling from a sixteenth-century Spanish castle, Santo could demand specific performance of the contract. Since the wood paneling was purchased elsewhere, the only satisfactory remedy would be to order Zeller to go through with the deal.
A person whose contract has been breached by the other party ______。
A、is not safe from discharge , damages and specific performance
B、usually brings the other party to court
C、can protect himself by making use of any of the three alternatives-discharge, damages and specific performance
D、will suffer financial loss even if the law offers him protection
【正确答案】：C
【名师解析】:根据题目内容，合同的履行是双方的责任，但当一方违反合同条款时，另一方有几种法律途径来保护自己的权益。这三种途径分别是：解除合同(discharge)、要求赔偿(damages)和强制履行(specific performance)。在提供的假设案例中，Zeller Lumberyard违反了与Nick Santo的合同条款，Santo可以选择解除合同，从其他地方购买木材，并且如果Zeller在晚些时候交付木材，Santo没有义务接受。此外，Santo还可以向法院提起诉讼，要求赔偿因Zeller未能履行合同而造成的直接利润损失。如果Zeller的违约行为导致Santo失去了一个大合同或一个好客户，法院可能会强制Zeller支付超过木材本身价值的赔偿。最后，如果合同中约定的是独一无二的物品，如来自16世纪西班牙城堡的木板，Santo可以要求强制履行合同。
因此，正确答案是C，即当一个人的合同被另一方违反时，他可以通过使用解除合同、要求赔偿和强制履行这三种替代方案中的任何一种来保护自己。
