When two businesses are working together, owners often use contracts just to define the relationship. For example, perhaps your company is a manufacturer and you get your materials from another source. You’ll have a contract with that parts provider saying when they will make deliveries and what you’ll get.
Much of the time, when people talk about breach of contract issues, they’re looking at situations where there are issues with the parts themselves. Maybe they never got delivered. Maybe the wrong parts were delivered. Maybe what has been provided is inferior to the quality that was expected or maybe the shipments are smaller than anticipated. There’s an endless list of potential problems that could crop up.
But it’s important to note that time can also be a factor. Even if the rest of the contract seems to be satisfied, issues with timing could mean that it has actually been broken.
Why does this matter?
In a lot of Industries, the timing is very important. You’ll take orders based on when you believe the materials will arrive and when you can create the products. If your supplier misses a shipment or sends it a week late, they may claim that they still fulfilled the contract because they gave you the materials you ordered. But you can counter that they missed a clear deadline that they agreed to, causing you to miss sales, and that this was a violation of the contract that cost you money.
Of course, this can become a very complex legal situation, so it’s quite important for you to know what legal options you have to protect your business.