What many states call a “force majeure” clause is often called an “Act of God” clause in Mississippi. In contracts for services and contracts for real estate, contractual force majeure/Act of God clauses are enforceable, but there is no Act of God defense absent a contractual clause.
This is not the case for contracts for the sale of goods. Unlike with other states, Mississippi’s version of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC or the Code) specifically addresses force majeure. Mississippi Code § 75-2-617 provides:
Deliveries may be suspended by either party in case of Act of God, war, riots, fire, explosion, flood, strike, lockout, injunction, inability to obtain fuel, power, raw materials, labor, containers, or transportation facilities, accident, breakage of machinery or apparatus, national defense requirements, or any cause beyond the control of such party, preventing the manufacture, shipment, acceptance, or consumption of a shipment of the goods or of a material upon which the manufacture of the goods is dependent. If, because of any such circumstance, seller is unable to supply the total demand for the goods, seller may allocate its available supply among itself and all of its customers, including those not under contract, in an equitable manner. Such deliveries so suspended shall be cancelled without liability, but the contract shall otherwise remain unaffected.
Importantly, this provision applies only to the seller — not the buyer — of goods. So even if a contract for the sale of goods does not contain a force majeure clause, Mississippi law reads one into the contract for the seller.