In trade and contract law, a drop dead date is a provision added to a legal or trade act, such as a contract or a court order. Such a provision sets a last-delay date (hence the name drop dead date) past which certain consequences will automatically follow, such as cancelling the contract, taking property or entering a judgment.
In contract law, a typical drop dead date example is the contract for the baking of a birthday cake, where it is implied that a late delivery will constitute a material breach.
In German and Swiss Law, this is called a "Fixgeschäft".
Famous quotes containing the words drop, dead and/or date:
“The world globes itself in a drop of dew.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I love man-kind, but I hate the institutions of the dead unkind. Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead, to the last codicil and letter. They rule this world, and the living are but their executors. Such foundation too have our lectures and our sermons, commonly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Ev’rythin’s up to date in Kansas City.”
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960)