Is the Assignee of a Contract Liable for the Non-Performance of Delegated Duties?

IT is an oft recurring statement that "rights arising out of a contract cannot be transferred if they are coupled with liabilities." It is such obscure statements as this which give rise to and perpetuate error, and an examination of the cases will show that this one has been responsible for no little confusion in regard to the matter of assignment in the law of Contract. Our courts, under the pressure of a well filled docket, are prone to seize upon a broad generalization of this kind without examining its true meaning or defining its proper limitations. It is high time for us to do away with such archaic conceptions and to recognize what the modem business man assumes, viz: that contract rights may be as freely transferred as any other species of property. That much has already been accomplished is evident from a perusal of the recent literature on the subject.

But there is more work to be done, for there are still supposed rules of law which tend to defeat the reasonable expectations of the parties and consequently to hamper the transfer of rights. Such rules do not deserve to be perpetuated if there is any rational basis for a contrary holding.