Novation: Difference between revisions

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{{a|negotiation|}}In layperson’s terms a [[novation]] is the transfer in full of one party’s rights and obligations under a {{t|contract}} to another person. The '''transferor''' steps out of the contract and is no longer bound by it. The '''transferee''' steps in to the contract and assumes all the transferor’s obligations. The '''remaining party''' stays put, but must perform to, and may expect performance from, the transferee and not the transferor.
{{a|negotiation|
[[File:Penrose-dreieck.svg|450px|thumb|center|An [[assignment and assumption]] agreement yesterday]]
}}In layperson’s terms a [[novation]] is the transfer in full of one party’s rights and obligations under a {{t|contract}} to another person. The '''transferor''' steps out of the contract and is no longer bound by it. The '''transferee''' steps in to the contract and assumes all the transferor’s obligations. The '''remaining party''' stays put, but must perform to, and may expect performance from, the transferee and not the transferor.
===Bizarre love triangle===
===Bizarre love triangle===
Unlike an [[assignment]], a [[novation]] requires all three parties to agree. A party to an [[English law]] {{t|contract}} may “[[assign]]” its ''[[right]]s'' to a third person without its counterparty’s permission (as long as the contract does not forbid it); however, it cannot unilaterally assign its '''[[obligation|obligations]]'''.  
Unlike an [[assignment]], a [[novation]] requires all three parties to agree. A party to an [[English law]] {{t|contract}} may “[[assign]]” its ''[[right]]s'' to a third person without its counterparty’s permission (as long as the contract does not forbid it); however, it cannot unilaterally assign its '''[[obligation|obligations]]'''.  
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Whether this is true or not is a matter for local [[tax attorney]]s — fools rush in where ''they'' fear to tread — but, the [[battle of form and substance|battle of form over substance]] being what it is, you would like to think one could mount a sensible argument that seeing as a fund’s net market exposure before and after a [[novation]] doesn’t change, the novation should be tax neutral, but — [[chicken licken]] and all that.
Whether this is true or not is a matter for local [[tax attorney]]s — fools rush in where ''they'' fear to tread — but, the [[battle of form and substance|battle of form over substance]] being what it is, you would like to think one could mount a sensible argument that seeing as a fund’s net market exposure before and after a [[novation]] doesn’t change, the novation should be tax neutral, but — [[chicken licken]] and all that.


Anyhow, one hopeful — but, to these cynical eyes, foolish — solution is to document the transfer not as a novation but an “[[assignment and assumption]]”, where the outgoing party assigns its rights, the incoming party assumes its obligations, and an infinitesimal moment later the outgoing party gracefully steps away into the night, propelled by the good wishes, respect, discharges and hold harmlesses of those remaining, and somehow the {{isdaprov|Transaction}} is is not terminated but granted perpetual existence through this whole surgical procedure transferred as a live organism from the heart of the retiring counterparty into the rib cage of the incoming one.  
Anyhow, one hopeful — but, to these cynical eyes, foolish — solution is to document the transfer not as a novation but an “[[assignment and assumption]]”.  


This is a lovely, imaginative solution. It is bold, hearty, superficially attractive, and endlessly fascinating, rather like one of those M. C. Esher tuning forks. Like an Esher tuning fork, you can easily commit it to paper, and it can please the easily gulled. For the same reason — because it is conceptually impossible — it cannot work.
{{assignment and assumption capsule}}


But is a [[novation]] different from an [[assignment and assumption]] agreement?
===Trick for young players===
===Trick for young players===
This is where one where unless you are careful, you may need to rely, more heavily that you would like, on the [[legal eagle]]’s old friend [[mutatis mutandis]].
This is where one where unless you are careful, you may need to rely, more heavily that you would like, on the [[legal eagle]]’s old friend [[mutatis mutandis]].