Duress
Duress
If you consider that you have been forced into entering into a contract against your will then you may be able to cancel it by using the common law principle of duress.
If a contract was entered into as a result of duress it is possible to have it set aside. There are three main types of duress recognised under English law. These are:
- duress to the person
- duress to the goods
- duress to a person’s economic well-being.
Duress has two main elements: 1) illegitimate pressure which 2) constitutes a significant cause of inducing the other party to enter the contract.
The definition of ‘illegitimate’ and ‘inducement’ have been the cause of much discussion in the past. In each type of duress the level of duress required varies. In the case of duress to the person it need only be a cause. Whereas in relation to economic duress it must be a significant cause. The courts also consider other factors such as whether the victim was able to refuse the contract freely and whether the victim protested at the time.
Duress of the person
If a person enters into a contract as a result of actual or threatened violence to himself or a person in their immediate family or near relatives then this is as a result of duress.
If duress was one of other reasons that the contract was entered into then the contract may be set aside. The requirement is simply that the threat ‘interfered’ with the threatened party’s free will and contributed to the decision to do so.
The contract is therefore voidable even if the intimidated party was going to enter into the contract anyway.
Duress of goods
A party who enters into a contract as a result of threats made to unlawfully seize, destruct or damage a party’s real or personal property will have entered under duress.
The relevant question for the courts to be asked is, taking into account the threat of goods, whether the contract was entered by the innocent party out of their own volition.
Economic Duress
If a party enters into a contract because of illegitimate economic pressure such as threats being made to commit some unlawful act, then they will be considered as having entered under duress.
- The two elements that must be fulfilled in order to show duress are that:
- pressure was applied to induce the victim to enter into the contract; and
- the pressure went beyond what the law could consider legitimate.
If you require further advice on the legitimacy of contracts entered into under duress then please contact us.