Contractual Breach and Foreseeable Force Majeure

A lower court found a defendant liable for damages resulting from a contractual breach, holding that the defendant could not rely on the defense of *force majeure* because the event causing the breach was foreseeable and the defendant had failed to take necessary precautions, despite the contractual clause limiting liability for such events. The high court quashed the decision, reasoning that in matters of contractual liability, *force majeure* requires not only unforeseeability but also externality and irresistibility, and that a party cannot rely on this defense when the event, even if external, was foreseeable and could have been mitigated through reasonable precautions mandated by the obligation to perform the contract.