Real Estate Force Majeure Clause In Texas
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Either Party shall be excused from performance and shall not be in default in respect of any obligation hereunder to the extent that the failure to perform such obligation is due to a Natural Force Majeure Event.
Force Majeure Clauses “Often likened to impossibility, it historically embodied the notion that parties could be relieved of performing their contractual duties when performance was prevented by causes beyond their control, such as an act of God.”
In real estate, force majeure refers to a contractual clause that allows parties to suspend or terminate their obligations when certain events beyond their control occur, making performance inadvisable, commercially impracticable, illegal, or impossible.
The major difference in such cases is that, without a force majeure clause, the party that wants to be released from contract obligations has the burden of proof, which means that this party must prove their argument is correct. If the other contracting parties do not agree, this could lead to litigation.
What is a Force Majeure Clause? A force majeure (pronounced “forss ma-zhoor”) clause is a provision in a contract that allows one or both parties to excuse (or sometimes delay) their performance obligations if circumstances beyond their control arise. These circumstances are typically called “force majeure events.”
Because the concept is foreign, lawyers who review or draft contracts governed by U.S. law should start with the assumptions that 1) principles of force majeure will not be implied in a contract that does not expressly provide for them, and 2) U.S. courts will interpret and apply force majeure provisions narrowly.
For events to constitute the use of force majeure, they must be unforeseeable, external to contract parties, and unavoidable. Force majeure means “greater force” and is related to an act of God, an event for which no party can be held accountable.
What Are Examples of Force Majeure? Events that could trigger a force majeure clause include war, terrorist attacks, a pandemic, or natural disasters that fall under the “act of God” category, such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane.
There are generally three essential elements to force majeure: • tt can occur with or without human intervention • it cannot have reasonably been foreseen by the parties • It was completely beyond the parties' control and they could not have prevented its consequences.
