To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com. In a survey of cases in federal, state and bankruptcy courts, commercial tenants seeking to delay or excuse the payment of rent because of pandemic-related downturns in business sometimes looked to the equitable doctrines of frustration of purpose and impossibility for relief. Both of these doctrines allow for the argument that a default is excusable under circumstances that were unforeseeable to the parties at the time of the contract's formation. While commercial tenants sometimes use these doctrines in tandem, they are distinguishable in their underlying aims. The