84 LEGAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY The application of the doctrine is only regarded as a last resort – and, therefore, must not be applied if the matter is subject to another particular legal provision14. 4.3. United Kingdom In the common law of the UK, the doctrine of “frustration of purpose” was established in the case Krell v Henry,15 a so called “coronation case”. The term, however, does not refer to an infection with the Corona virus but to the crowning of a king: By contract in writing of 20 June 1902, the defendant agreed to hire from the plaintiff a flat in Pall Mall on 26 June and 27 June, on which days it had been announced that the coronation processions for the coronation of King Edward VII would take place and pass along Pall Mall. The contract did not contain any express terms on the coronation processions or any other purposes for which the flat was to be hired. The defendant paid the deposit upon signing the contract. The processions, however, did not take place on the announced dates. The court held that as both parties recognised that they regarded the taking place of the coronation processions on the days originally fixed as the foundation of their contract, the words of the obligation on the defendant to pay for the use of the flat for the days named were not used with reference to the possibility that the processions might not take place. The claim therefore was dismissed. The principle that an implied condition which ceases to exist voids the contract even goes back to an earlier judgment in the case of Taylor v Caldwell16. 4.4. Spain In Spain, the doctrine of “discontinuation of the basis of the transaction” is known as doctrine of “desaparición de la base del negocio” and was, for instance, applied in a case when an option to purchase land that was to be urbanised could not be exercised because the administration did not grant the change of urban development classification of the land17. The doctrine is often compared to or even seen as a sub-category of the doctrine of “clausula rebus sic stantibus” and is also accepted in COVID-19 related 14 Führich/Staudinger Reiserecht-HdB § 47 Rn 51. 15 Krell v Henry [1903] 2 KB 740. 16 Taylor v Caldwell [1863] EWHC QB J1, 122 ER 309, 3 B & S 826. 17 Tribunal Supremo, Sentencia de 21 de julio de 2010.
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