Alaskan Crude Corporation missed work deadlines on an oil and gas unit and claimed a pending court appeal qualified as force majeure to excuse the delay. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that force majeure does not apply when the operator already knew about the legal decision before agreeing to the deadlines. The court affirmed that companies cannot use foreseeable legal challenges as an excuse to miss contractual obligations.
Force majeure only protects you from truly unforeseeable events—not legal disputes or appeals you already knew about when you signed the contract
If you're aware of a pending decision or legal challenge before accepting a deadline, you cannot later claim it as force majeure to excuse non-performance