ABSTRACT
A contract may be impossible to carry out at the time it is made. For example, A may contract to sell his car to B on the shared assumption that the car is in existence. Unknown to either party, the car was stolen and destroyed earlier in the day so that, at the time the contract is made, the car no longer exists. This situation is sometimes called ‘common mistake’, meaning a mistake common to both parties; other writers call it ‘initial impossibility’.
