Patio Pondering: When Keeping Your Word Backfires

The weather forecasters were right: we had heavy fog this morning. The fog was so thick our schools delayed then canceled school. The sun finally burned off the moisture and the day is beautiful.

Yesterday as I was working on a project, I had to review a contract that had been cancelled. I could not find a great reason for the cancellation, so I contacted the cancelling party to ask why they chose to walk away. What they said threw me for a loop.

In our discussion they shared that my client had fulfilled all the requirements of the contract—every single one. When pressed, they finally said:
“They paid me what they owed, but they should have paid me more because conditions changed.”

The funny thing? This is the third contract termination I’ve reviewed with a similar story: the agreement was fulfilled, but one side was still unhappy.

None of these contracts had bonus provisions, no tiered payment structure based on profit, just a flat payment. Yet one side was mad—mad because the other side did exactly what they agreed to.

In two of the cases, my clients even offered more than the owners had received before, and still, the owners were upset they hadn’t gotten more. Frustration runs high on both sides.

It makes me wonder: if both sides meet the terms, but expectations shift after the ink is dry, what does “fair” really mean in a contract?

When have you been in this situation—on either side of the table?