Which option describes termination when an act required by a contract is not possible to perform due to death or other legal impossibility?

• A. Illegal contract
• B. Property destroyed by fire/tornado
• C. Incompetence
• D. Impossibility of performance (death)

Answer: (D)

Impossibility of performance is the key idea here. When the act a contract requires cannot be done because of death or another legally recognized barrier, the contract is discharged. Death of a party can make personal service obligations impossible to fulfill, and other events—like destruction of the subject matter or a change in law making the act illegal—also render performance impossible. So the contract ends or obligations are excused because the promised act cannot be performed.

The other options don’t describe this idea: an illegal contract is void from the start, incompetence isn’t a standard discharge for contractual performance, and while destruction of property is a form of impossibility, the general doctrine that covers death and legal impossibility is impossibility of performance.