Rescission, annulment or destruction. A general term for the repudiation and annulment of any contract or transaction: see (English) Sale of Goods Act, 1893. A contract for the sale of real estate very commonly contains a power for the vendor to rescind the contract if the purchaser makes or insists upon any objection or requisition which the vendor is unable or unwilling to comply with; but see ss. 42 and 45 of the Law of Property Act, 1925, precluding the vendor from rescinding in certain cases, and this facility will not assist the vendor in case of a serious defect in title or substantial mis-representation, see Re Hardick Co. v. Lipski, (1901) 2 Ch 666. Where a purchaser rescinds under a power in the contract he has a lien for his deposit, Whitbread & Co. v. Watt, (1902) 1 Ch 835, but before 1926 the purchaser in the absence of mis-representation was precluded from recovering his deposit if he chose to rescind upon an objection which he was precluded by statute from taking under an open contract, or by the conditions in the contract, Scott v. Alvarez, (1895) 2 Ch 603. Under ss. 45 (11) and 49 (2) of the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, the Court can, if it thinks fit, order the return of any deposit where the Court refuses to grant specific performance or in any action for the return of the deposit.
A party's unilateral unmaking of a contract for legally sufficient reason, such as other's party's material breach, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1308.