17Effect of schemes on contracts
(1)Subject to the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of this section, a contract of which neither the making nor the performance was, at the time when the contract was made, prohibited by or under any scheme in force, shall not, unless the terms of the contract otherwise provide, be void or unenforceable by reason that, at the time for the performance of any provision of the contract, the performance thereof is so prohibited.
(2)Where the performance of any such contract as is referred to in the foregoing subsection is prohibited by or under any scheme in force, the foregoing subsection shall cease to apply to that contract on the expiration of three months after the prohibition first takes effect, unless the contract is registered under the next following section.
(3)Where any scheme in force provides—
(a)for requiring registered producers to sell the regulated product or any description thereof only to, or through the agency of, the board, or
(b)for the determination of the quantity of the regulated product or of any description thereof which may be sold by any registered producer,
then, nothwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of this section, every contract (whether made before or after the commencement of this Act) whereby a registered producer undertakes to sell, otherwise than to, or through the agency of, the board, a quantity of an agricultural product determined by reference to the total quantity thereof from time to time produced by the registered producer or produced by him in any area or premises specified in the contract, shall, if and in so far as the performance of the contract is prohibited by or under the scheme, be void and unenforceable.
(4)Where, in conformity with a scheme, any contract for the sale of the regulated product by a registered producer otherwise than to, or through the agency of, the board purports to confer on the board any right to receive from the purchaser the whole or any part of the purchase price payable under the contract, or of any damages for which the purchaser may be liable in respect of a wrongful rejection of articles tendered in accordance with the contract, the board may enforce that right against the purchaser, notwithstanding that the board are not parties to the contract and notwithstanding that, as between the board and the purchaser, there is no consideration.
(5)No person shall be liable to any penalty in respect of a contravention of any scheme if he proves that the contravention was necessary for the performance of a contract which, by reason of subsections (1) and (2) of this section, was not, at the time of the contravention, void or unenforceable.