Specific Performance of Foreign Money Obligations?

Date01 May 1968
Published date01 May 1968
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1968.tb01196.x
AuthorF. A. Mann
342
THE
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
VOL.
81
once for all. Of late
it
has been much mooted (and the matter
is now before the Law Commissioners
O)
whether a system
of
review-
able annuity awards should be adopted. Without entering into
a
discussion of the controversy, it is of interest to consider the
extent to which this system would solve the present problem.
Article
844
of the German Civil Code provides an interesting
possibility
:
"
If
a person was killed at the time when he was under a
legal obligation to support a third party
.
.
.
the wrongdoer
must compensate the third party by the payment of a money
annuity in
so
far
as
the deceased would have been bound to
furnish maintenance during the probable duration of his life."
This notion of substituting the defendant for the decedent, com-
bined with the possibility of subsequent adjustment by a tribunal,'"
on the application of either of the parties in the light of changed
circumstances is, it is submitted, the best solution to the problem
of the
'(
remarriageable widow." One objection that has been
made to this scheme is of peculiar significance in the present con-
text
:
the argument that this would encourage
a
widow
"
to live in
sin
"
and thus escape the reduction of her award.
It
is, however,
not beyond the capacity of the courts to deal adequately with this
situation. In France, where a similar system operates, the court
takes account of the fact that the widow is living
in
"
a state of
concubinage
')
and modifies the award accordingly."
If
the admini-
strative revolution necessary to accomplish this solution should
prove too much for the fortitude of the law reformers, then it
seems that the problem of the
"
remarriageable widow
"
will
continue to haunt us. A.
I.
OQUs.
SPECIFIC
PERFORMANCE
OF
FOREIQN
MONEY
OBLIGATIONS
i'
THE
recent devaluation
of
sterling will bring to the forefront the
rule of English law according to which an amount of foreign
currency claimed in English proceedings must be converted into
sterling at the rate of exchange prevajling on the day when it
became payable. This
"
breach-date-rule," established by two
decisions of the House of Lords means, for instance, that, if
A
in New York was on September
1,
1949,
entitled to be paid
$420
in New York by another New York resident under
a
contract
governed by New York law and finds his debtor in England, he
9
List
of
Official Committees concerned with the Reform
of
Law, Jane
1967,
10
The
German
Civil Law provides
for
tho separate determinations
of
liability
para.
19.
and
damnee8.
11
e.~.,
Dull&
1959.
515.
1
The
Voltumo
[l92l]
2
A.C.
645,
and
Re
United
Railway8
of
Hucana
[1961]
A.C.
1007.

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