In light of these general observations, I now address the law on unilateral mistake. 136 First, it was suggested that no contracts had been formed as all the contracts were subject to availability and that a failure to adhere to the directive call to enquire prevented the contracts from coming into existence. Their conduct in pursuing their claims cannot by any stretch of the imagination be characterised as having the slightest colour of being legitimate regardless of whether the subjective or objective theories are applied and whether common law or equity is applied in adjudicating this matter. 15 Early on the morning of 13January 2003 at about 1.17am, the first plaintiff received a message from a friend, Desmond Tan (Desmond), through an Internet chatlink. Rajah J.C. in the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte. When giving evidence, he struck me as cautious, taking great pains to convey the impression that his numerous online enquiries that morning were routinely carried out without any real inkling that an error had occurred. A court is not likely to take a sympathetic view of such manner of amendment. Web Communication: A Review Of Chwee Kin Keong And Others v. Digilandmall.com pte ltd by Rokiah Kadir [2009] 8 CLJ xxi. In the recent case of Chwee Kin Keong and others v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd (2005), the Singapore Courts were provided with an opportunity to revisit the law concerning mistakes made in the formation of a contract, in particular, in the context of online contracts. 105 It is not only reasonable but right that the objective appearance of a contract should not operate in favour of a party who is aware, in the eyes of the law, of the true state of affairs when, for instance, there is real misapprehension on the part of the mistaken party and when the actual reality of the situation is starkly obvious. It is essential that the law be perceived as embodying rationality and fairness while respecting the commercial imperative of certainty. I am not prepared, after full consideration, to assume that the reporters misquoted the facts. Chwee Kin Keong vs Digilandmall.com - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt / .pptx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. Daniel was previously a partner and head of the technology practice at Messrs Rajah & Tann. 68 Yeow Kinn Oei is 29 years old and the brother of the third plaintiff. The relevant text reads: WHILE surfing the Net at about 2am on Monday, MrTan Wei Teck stumbled upon an offer he could not believe $66 for a Hewlett Packard laserjet printer that normally sells for $3,854 before GST. In Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, one of the defendant's employees mistakenly uploaded the contents of a training template onto the defendant's website, resulting in the retail price of S$3,854 for a commercial laser printer on the website being replaced with the figure S$66. 46 He was therefore aware, even before he made his first purchase, that the actual price of the laser printer was in the region of US$2,000. In Chwee Kin Keong v . 155 The Internet has revolutionised commerce and radically altered the manner in which commercial interaction currently takes place. The defendant is therefore entitled to recover in full its taxed costs from the plaintiffs. 52 He then called the second plaintiff on his handphone and informed him that he intended to purchase 50 laser printers. Please refer to the PDF copy for a print-friendly version. 85 Having stated the general rule, it is imperative that the rationale underlying this approach be understood. A real product number HP9660A was inserted in the new template as the prototype for which fictional prices were to be changed on the three relevant websites. Upon accessing the Digilandmall website and confirming that the printer was offered there at $66 as well, he placed a further order for 25 laser printers through that website at about 3.29am. Reference this By their own admission, they made Internet searches through various search engines to ascertain the profits they could make. The unusual product description of 55 which the fourth plaintiff alone reluctantly acknowledged as weird and unusual would have been a red light signal that an error had occurred. 131 In a number of cases, including the present, it may not really matter which view is preferred. Prejudice is to be viewed broadly to encompass any injustice and embraces both procedural and substantive notions; (d) recognising that while a costs award against the party seeking late amendments can frequently alleviate any inconvenience caused, this may not always be appropriate; (e) taking into account policy considerations that require finality in proceedings and proper time management of the courts resources and scheduling. Date of Verdicts: 12 April 2004, 13 January 2005. 19 Later in the morning, at about 4.15am, the fourth plaintiff sent the following e-mail to the first plaintiff, copied to the second plaintiff only: Subject: Re: IMPT HP Colour LaserJet going at only $66!! Pginas: 93: High Court - Suit n 202 of 2003. David Baxter Edward Thomas and Peter Sandford Gander v BPE Solicitors (a firm) [2010] EWHC 306 (Ch) Dunlop v Higgins (1848) 1 HLC 381. While a court of law does not sit as a court of commercial morality, it cannot lose sight of this central objective of contract law. Again he attempted to minimise the impact of these observations by saying his subsequent searches erased all such doubts. What is urged is that, owing to a common error as to some fundamental fact, the agreement is robbed of all efficacy. This was borne out by the case of Chwee Kin Keong and Others v. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] SGHC 71 where an autogenerated email with "Successful Purchase Confirmation" in its subject . He graduated from NTU as a bachelor of business studies, specialising in financial analysis. 83 The defendant maintained that there was no element of surprise and/or prejudice arising from the amendments. This constituted more than a quarter of the total number of laser printers ordered. This view seems to suggest that principles of equity invariably provide an equally strong but more elastic second string to the bow. A particular class of case which illustrates unilateral mistake as to the terms intended, known to the other party, is that in which an offer which would be very advantageous to the offeree is snapped up by the offeree. This, by an uncanny coincidence, was the same person whom he had intended to consult in the resale of the laser printers a topic that he had discussed with the second plaintiff earlier that morning. The fifth plaintiff was also a member of this bridge group. The first and fifth appellants each ordered a hundred printers, while the other appellants ordered more than a hundred printers each. The caption in each of the e-mails Successful Purchase Confirmation from HP online says it all. Slade, in a well reasoned article written not long after, 128 The most significant judicial pronouncement supporting this view emanates from the recent English Court of Appeal in, Thus the premise of the equitys intrusion into the effects of the common law is that the common law rule in question is seen in the particular case to work injustice, and for some reason the common law cannot cure itself. Yong Pung HowCJ in Tribune Investment Trust Inc v Soosan Trading Co Ltd [2000] 3 SLR 405 at [40] opined: [T]he function of the court is to try as far as practical experience allows, to ensure that the reasonable expectations of honest men are not disappointed. A court will not enforce the plaintiffs purported contracts even if they are not void. Rajah J.C. in the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte. Comments Published in English: [2004] 2 SLR 594; [2004] SGHC 71. The e-mail was given a high importance priority and captioned go load it now!!. Cory had chosen this mode of communication; therefore he In this case, there was no consensus ad idem or meeting of the minds between the parties, which meant that there could be no binding contract between them. Merchants may find their contracts formed in foreign jurisdictions and therefore subject to foreign laws. The modern approach in contract law requires very little to find the existence of consideration. Having expressed my views on consideration, I should also add for good measure that, in any event, there is ample consideration. Decisions cannot be reconciled and expressions, terminology and phraseology in different decisions mean different things to different courts and even judges within the same judicial systems. ! with its importance set at high. It is not necessary to prove actual knowledge on the part of the non-mistaken party in order to ground relief, as in this context one is taken to have known what would have been obvious to a reasonable person in the light of the surrounding circumstances: Hartog v Colin and Shields [1939] AllER 566 (KBD); McMaster University; Stepps Investments, supra; Taylor, supra. Mutual promises, by all accounts, on the basis of existing case law, more than amply constitute consideration. Soon after, the second, third and fifth plaintiffs took their claims to the media. There cannot be any legitimate expectation of enforcement on the part of the non-mistaken party seeking to take advantage of appearances. It is postulated by many of the leading treatises that equity has a broad church incorporating a more elastic approach and a court of equity may rescind a contract, award damages or, in limited circumstances, fashion a remedy, to suit the justice of the matter. Altogether he sought to purchase 760 units, the largest number of orders placed by anyone between 8 and 13January 2003. In accordance with s15(1) of the ETA, acceptance would be effective the moment the offer enters that node of the network outside the control of the originator. He said that he wanted to be sure that the offer on the HP website was genuine. Failure to do so could also result in calamitous repercussions. The terms of the offer are clear and unambiguous and the offeree accepts the offer according to its true sense, Although a mistaken party will not often be able to discharge the onus of showing that the other party, 118 The Canadian courts have been the most active common law courts explicating and developing this area of the law. The law may not imply a condition precedent as to the availability of stock simply to bail out an Internet merchant from a bad bargain, 104 The creases over the theoretical approach to adopt in determining the existence of contracts have for some time now been decisively ironed out in favour of the objective theory. There must be consensus ad idem. 129 The careful analysis of case law undertaken by that court yields a cogent and forceful argument that Lord DenningMR was plainly attempting to side-step Bell v Lever in a naked attempt to achieve equitable justice in the face of the poverty of the common law. If an offeree understands an offer in accordance with its natural meaning and accepts it, the offeror cannot be heard to say that he intended the words of his offer to have a different meaning. There must be consensus ad idem.
hampshire police officers,
outlander big house location,
Kidada Jones Children,
Averitt Express Part Time Dock Worker Hours,
Famous Mexican Telenovela Actors,
Articles C