Starlight Enterprises Ltd v Lapco Enterprises Ltd

Starlight Enterprises Ltd v Lapco Enterprises Ltd
Starlight Enterprises Ltd v Lapco Enterprises Ltd
Court	Court of Appeal of New Zealand
Full case name	Starlight Enterprises Ltd v Lapco Enterprises Ltd
Decided	23 May 1979
Citation	[1979] 2 NZLR 744
Court membership
Judges sitting	Woodhouse, Richardson, McMullin

Starlight Enterprises Ltd v Lapco Enterprises Ltd [1979] 2 NZLR 744 is a cited case in New Zealand law regarding repudiation.^[1]^[2]

Background

Lapco manufactured 4,000 bags for Starlight for $3.00 each. 571 bags into the contract, they sent Starlight a letter saying "we wish to advise you that our new price will have to be $4.10 per bag from now on. Furthermore, we wish to point out that we are going to step up the rate of production of your bags in order to avoid any further increase".

Starlight treated this letter as repudiation, and sent them a letter saying "we have decided to cancel the contract with your company forwith".

Held

The court ruled that the contract was not repudiation.

References

^ Chetwin, Maree; Graw, Stephen; Tiong, Raymond (2006). An introduction to the Law of Contract in New Zealand (4th ed.). Thomson Brookers. pp. 276–277, 283. ISBN 0-86472-555-8.
^ Walker, Campbell (2004). Butterworths Student Companion Contract (4th ed.). LexisNexis. p. 177. ISBN 0-408-71770-X.