Procure
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Towards more picturesque speech™
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Procure
/prəˈkjʊə/ (v.)
To arrange for something to happen, typically — but, sigh, not necessarily — by doing it.
Like “effect”, “procure” is one of the weakest verbs in the English language. It clarifies something that — unless your contract is one of special personal service; as to which see below — goes without saying: you may perform your contract through the agency of someone else. As long as that someone does what you have undertaken to do, their performance is a good discharge for your obligation.
Before you argue that a vexatious counterparty might take that literal point, and argue that the agent’s performance unless especially contemplated, does not have the technical effect of discharging the contract, ask what is the counterparty’s loss that it might sue you for?
Personal service contracts
We use Pink Floyd’s storied axe-man David Gilmour to illustrate our points from time to time.[1] This is one such time. Now imagine you are a wealthy cryptobro type — very wealthy, in this case — and you contract David Gilmour to attend your 25th birthday party and entertain your guests. Perhaps 55th birthday: we doubt a twenty-five-year-old cryptobro would know who David Gilmour is, let alone want him to spoil the banging vibe at his party. I digress.
Now if David Gilmour sent along an agent to discharge his obligation, we can imagine there would be some unhappy faces. But even in this case, the contractual obligation is for Mr Gilmour to play, or procure the playing by himself of, the guitar. (You may laugh: this is how magic lawyers think).