I write to report the passing earlier this week of Brian Coote, Emeritus Professor of the University of Auckland, aged 89. Brian was an outstanding scholar of the law of contract, whose work was influential around the Commonwealth. He completed his PhD at Cambridge in 1959, sharing the Yorke Prize with Len Sealy, another New Zealand-born scholar. The substance of his doctorate was published as Exception Clauses (Sweet & Maxwell, 1964). In a book review ([1965] CLJ 301), the late Tony Weir wrote:

“For this is an exemplary monograph, a mini-masterpiece. It has an almost Gallic elegance, the result of an enviable style with just the right degree of aeration being brought to bear, with a rare singleness of purpose, on a problem neatly defined and authorities thoroughly mastered.”

The influence of this book and Brian’s later writing (including the rejection of the idea of “fundamental breach”) is obvious in the judgments of Lord Wilberforce in Suisse Atlantique Societe d'Armament SA v NV Rotterdamsche Kolen Centrale [1967] 1 AC 361 and Photo Production Ltd v Securicor Transport Ltd [1980] AC 827 (in the UK overtaken by legislation). Brian Coote’s writing on the performance interest in contract law was also influential, and openly acknowledged, in Lord Goff of Chieveley’s judgment in Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd v Panatown Ltd [2001] 1 AC 518.

Brian retired at the end of 1994 but continued to write well into his early 80s. Many of Brian’s articles were republished in a series of books:

• R Bigwood (ed) Contract as Assumption (Hart Publishing, 2010)
• J Carter (ed) Contract as Assumption II (Hart Publishing, 2016)
• B Coote, J Carter and J Ren (eds) Coote on the New Zealand Contract Statutes (Thomson Reuters, 2017)

Peter Watts.