Question

Annie agrees to bake a 6 tier chocolate cake for Christina’s birthday. When mixing the ingredients, she gets distracted as she’s updating her Instagram story and adds SALT instead of SUGAR. The cake is inedible. The price for the cake is $200. Christina refuses to pay. If Annie sues, what will be the likely result? Use substantial or strict performance in your response.

Artist Donna paints a portrait of Christina to hang in her living room. The contract is a personal satisfaction contract for $300. If Christina doesn’t like the painting does she have to pay? Explain your response.

Answer 1

Whenever there is a contract for craftsmanship or specific skills from one party, it makes the performance specific. In this case, the 6 tier cake requirement can be considered specific performance. In addition to this, the cake is also considered to be sweet. Thus without the presence of sweetness and rather saltiness, it becomes a breach of contract. In this case we cannot consider substantial performance because replacing sugar with salt defeats the purpose of the cake. Thus it qualifies as strict performance. If Annie sues, she will be held liable for the damages because substantial performance will be invalid.

The contract between Donna and Christina can be extremely subjective. However, as long as the portrait is reasonable, Christina should pay Donna. If the portrait is very bad to an extent that it does not resemble Christina or if the portrait is ruined by other external factors then Christina may refrain from paying Donna.

In general contracts of personal satisfaction requires a certain degree of trust between the two parties.