Krell v. Henry Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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Krell v. Henry | 2 K.B. 740 (1903)
O! how it yearn’d my heart, when I beheld, in London streets, that coronation day!
With that single line, William Shakespeare effectively captured England’s national mood when a new monarch is crowned. Americans, with our orderly and predictable rituals of presidential succession, may not appreciate the national excitement that accompanies a British coronation.
And so it was in 1902. Queen Victoria had reigned for sixty-four years, the longest reign of any English monarch to that time. So when, upon her death, Edward assumed the throne, his coronation was to be a national event the likes of which hadn’t been seen in the lifetime of most of his subjects. Scheduled for June twenty-sixth, it had been a year in the planning, a spectacle to remind the world that, truly, the sun never set on the British Empire.
Mr. C. S. Henry wanted a place to observe the coronation procession. He found a vacant apartment that offered an ideal view. Paul Krell, the apartment’s owner, was out of the country, and had authorized his solicitor to rent out the apartment as he saw fit. Henry and Krell’s solicitor exchanged letters in which Henry agreed to rent the apartment for two days, June twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh, but not the nights, for the price of seventy-five pounds. Henry paid a deposit of twenty-five pounds, with the remainder due on June twenty-fourth. None of the correspondence specifically mentioned the coronation, but everyone understood that Henry was renting the apartment for those two days to witness the event.
But on June twenty-fourth, the King was stricken with appendicitis. He became the first monarch ever to undergo abdominal surgery with anesthesia, and while it was successful, the coronation and all attendant proceedings were postponed.
His grand plans foiled, Henry refused to pay the remaining fifty pounds. Krell sued him for breach of contract. The trial court held that the occurrence of a coronation procession was an implied condition of the contract. When that didn’t occur, through no fault of either party, the contract became unenforceable. The court thus dismissed the lawsuit. Krell then appealed.
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