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Condition precedent: Difference between revisions
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So: I agree to lend you my car for ten quid, but before I let you have the keys, you must give proof you have insurance. The ten pounds is consideration; the insurance certificate is a [[condition precedent]]. | So: I agree to lend you my car for ten quid, but before I let you have the keys, you must give proof you have insurance. The ten pounds is consideration; the insurance certificate is a [[condition precedent]]. | ||
It reminds me of a story from the [[jolly contrarian]]'s youth. It was decades ago, in the infancy of the credit derivatives market. | It reminds me of a story from the [[jolly contrarian]]'s youth. It was decades ago, a mild Friday evening in the infancy of the credit derivatives market. It was all to do with a [[note]], credit linked to the republic of South Africa. I had faxed if off to the client, as one did in those days, and was jut putting my jacket on to leave for the weekend. | ||
The phone rang. I turned on my heels. Should I answer? | |||
Valour got the better part of discretion, and I did. It turned out to be a partner from that famous derivatives firm<ref>Not famous. It was and, as far as I know, still is, a shipping and marine insurance specialist.</ref> Stephenson Harwood. He announced himself as the legal adviser to the prospective client, and told me he had some comments on the swap. Only he pronounced it [[sw-æp]], to rhyme with “crap”, and not [[sw-ŏp]], to rhyme with chop — something that no self-respecting British child would ever do. | |||
In any case this chap sent in his mark-up of the, er, [[sw-æp]], and he had rather gone to town on it, in a manner indicating only a passing acquaintance with the derivatives market, but great expertise in the issues arising when one ships things by sea. | |||
My supervising partner was an excitable fellow<ref>''Highly'' excitable. To keep a lid on his blood pressure, he retired shortly thereafter and now runs a newsagent in Gillingham.</ref>. I confess it was with a guilty glee that I trotted around and dropped the comments — they were compendious as they were ill-informed — on his desk, the way an obstreperous child might drop a match into a canister of petrol. It had the anticipated effect. Whilst the young [[JC]] was patiently explaining this setback to our client, a giant investment bank represented by a callow but quick young fellow from Dublin in his first year out from Trinity College. | |||
“I have never been so outraged”, said my supervisor, his face a deep puce. “I have covered his draft with unprintable words! Obscenities! Words starting with “c” and “p” ...!” | |||
There was the most exquisite pause before the young Irishman on the speakerphone interjected: | |||
:“[[Conditions precedent]]?” | :“[[Conditions precedent]]?” | ||