ABSTRACT
The contract of employment may be terminated at common law in various ways, some of which do not amount to a dismissal, for example, death, mutual agreement (see Birch and Humber v University of Liverpool (1985) and Igbo v Johnson Matthey Chemical Ltd (1986)), expiry of a fixed term contract (although this may amount to a statutory dismissal) and frustration. Frustration occurs where there is an unforeseen event which either makes it impossible for the contract to be performed at all, or at least renders its performance as something radically different from what the parties envisaged when they made the contract. The event must have occurred without the fault of either contracting party, for example, imprisonment or sickness. With respect to the former, in Shepherd & Co Ltd v Jerrom (1986), the applicant had entered into a four year apprenticeship when, after 21 months, he was sentenced to a minimum of six months in borstal. On his release, his employers refused to take him back and he complained of unfair dismissal. The tribunal rejected the employer’s argument that the contract had been frustrated by reason of the custodial sentence, but the Court of Appeal allowed the employer’s appeal.
