Seller's Non-Performance Due to Foreign Export Ban Constitutes Force Majeure

A seller contracted to deliver goods to a buyer, but failed to do so because an essential raw material, which the seller believed they had secured, was unavailable due to a foreign government's decision to withhold export licenses, leading the buyer to sue for breach of contract and damages. The court of last resort quashed the lower court's decision, reasoning that the seller's obligation was one of means, not of result, and that the intervening action of a foreign sovereign, being an external and unforeseeable event, constituted force majeure, thus exonerating the seller from liability for non-performance.