A widow sells a business to a nonprofit organization for $25,000. The contract is silent on a zoning-board approval condition, but the organization's agent says it is a condition. The organization later sues for breach after zoning approval would have been granted. The court should rule:

• A. Yes, because the condition is an express term in the contract.
• B. Yes, because the condition can be waived by the organization.
• C. No, because zoning approval cannot affect performance.
• D. No, because the condition is impossible to meet.

Answer: (B)

Waiver of a condition can preserve or enforce performance even when the contract is silent about that condition. A condition that would benefit the party to whom performance is owed is typically waivable by that party.

Here, zoning approval would benefit the nonprofit buyer. If the contract is silent on this contingency, the buyer can still treat the zoning requirement as a condition that it may waive. If the buyer chooses to waive or effectively proceed without requiring zoning approval, the seller’s obligation to close remains enforceable. Thus, the ability of the organization to waive the condition supports enforcing the contract and allows the organization to sue for breach if the seller refused to close after zoning would have been granted.

The other options are off because there is no express zoning contingency in the contract, zoning can affect the timing or feasibility of performance, and the claim isn’t about impossibility or non-existence of the condition.