Court case(1872) LR 7 Ex 111

Knight promised to marry Frost after his father's death. While the father was still alive, Knight broke off the engagement and announced that he would not marry her. She sued at once for breach of promise, without waiting for the father's death, which was the event on which performance depended.

The Exchequer Chamber held for the plaintiff, applying Hochster v. De la Tour. Cockburn CJ explained that the promisee has an election: she may treat the renunciation as inoperative and wait for the time of performance, keeping the contract alive for the benefit of both parties and taking the risk of any later event that would discharge it; or she may treat the repudiation as a wrongful putting an end to the contract and sue at once for damages. The contingency did not prevent the renunciation from being an immediate breach.