severable contract

severable contract n. an agreement which is made up of several separate contracts between the same parties, such as series of sales, shipments, or different pieces of equipment. Therefore, breach of one of the separate (severable) contracts is not a breach of the remainder of the over-all contract and is not an excuse for the other party to refuse to honor any devisable part of the contract which has not been breached. Example: Whitley Widget Company has contracted with Hardy Hardware to deliver a dozen wall heaters, one ton of nails, 100 rolls of linoleum, and a truckload of roof tiles, with a price set for each type of product. Whitley no longer produces nails and cannot deliver them, but the other parts of the contract remain in force between Whitley and Hardy. (See: contract, breach of contract)