Sabin and Hathaway entered a contract under which Sabin was to provide a concert hall and pay $75 to Hathaway for a musical performance by a quartette.
Thirty-six hours before the concert, a particularly severe snowstorm occurred, and Sabin, the concert hall owner, concluded that the musicians, who were then in another town, would not be able to arrive in time for the concert.
Because he assumed the musicians would not arrive in time, Sabin did not prepare the hall for the concert, and, when the musicians did in fact arrive on time, he was unable to provide them with a hall for the concert.
Sabin claimed that he reasonably assumed the musicians would not be able to perform their side of the contract, and hence that he was not obligated to provide the concert hall.