Voces del tesauro. The fifth plaintiff, even if he had not been alerted by the second plaintiff, would have instinctively appreciated the existence of a manifest error without any prompting whatsoever. Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd [1947] KB 130 Chapelton v Barry UDC [1940] 1 KB 532 Chaplin v Hicks [1911] 2 KB 786 Chappell v Nestl [1960] AC 87 Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com [2006] 1 LRC 37 CIBC Mortgages v Pitt [1994] 1 AC 200 - Undue . They proceeded to file their amendments to the statement of claim as if leave had already been given. 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. 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 a physical sale, the merchant can immediately turn down an offer to purchase a product that has been advertised; otherwise he may be inundated with offers he cannot justify. The rules of offer and acceptance are satisfied and the parties are of one mind. Has an agreement been reached or not? It deals with the process rather than the substance of how to divine the rule. It is unequivocally unethical conduct tantamount to sharp practice. They are not entitled to the costs of the subsequent brief hearing, for reasons I now deal with summarily. He commenced practice in 2000 and currently practices with the law firm representing the plaintiffs in this action. The very foundations of predictability, certainty and efficacy, underpinning contractual dealings, will be undermined if the law and/or equity expands the scope of the mistake exception with alacrity or uncertainty. We are, Our conclusion is that it is impossible to reconcile, In this case we have heard full argument, which has provided what we believe has been the first opportunity in this court for a full and mature consideration of the relation between, 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, 130 It can be persuasively argued that given (a)the historical pedigree of the cases, (b)the dictates of certainty and predictability in the business community and (c)the general acceptance of the existence of distinct common law rules, it is preferable not to conflate these concepts. I found their attempts to play down the impact of the statements which they had, to all intents and purposes, willingly and deliberately made earlier, unconvincing. The other school of thought views the approach outlined earlier with considerable scepticism. This may have created formatting or alignment issues. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - LawTeacher is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. I invited both parties to indicate if they wished to amend their pleadings. The complainants argued that they were not aware that this price was a mistake and wanted the binding contract to be fulfilled. Further, the character of the mistake was such that any reasonable person similarly circumstanced as each of the plaintiffs would have had every reason to believe that a manifest error had occurred. Court reference 202 of 2003. Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd. Case Nos: Suit 202/2003/E (for the first instance), CA/30/2004 (for the appeal) in the High Court of Singapore (at first instance), Singapore Court of Appeal. We are only concerned with the question whether relief might be given for common mistake in circumstances wider than those stipulated in Bell v Lever Bros Ltd [1932] AC 161. These orders were placed at a price of S$66 each, whereas the actual price was S$3,854 each. I agree that this exception should be kept within a very narrow compass. The other knows, or must be taken to know, of his mistake. 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. I note that there have been powerful arguments made to the contrary. I found his entire evidence relating to his communication with the first and other plaintiffs unsatisfactory and in many aspects incredulous. Chwee Kin Keong and Others v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, Whether amendment of particulars of pleadings at conclusion of submissions allowed, Facts raised in proposed amendments addressed during trial and submissions, Whether promise by buyer to pay for goods, in exchange for delivery of goods, constituted sufficient consideration, Electronic Transactions Act (Cap 88, 1999 Rev Ed), Whether automated e-mail responses from seller amounted to acceptance of buyer's offer, Seller's unilateral mistake as to price of goods posted on website, Whether online buyer entitled to enforce contract against seller, 3 All six plaintiffs are graduates, conversant with the usage of the Internet and its practices and endowed with more than an adequate understanding of business and commercial practices. An e-mail, while bearing some similarity to a postal communication, is in some aspects fundamentally different. 155 The Internet has revolutionised commerce and radically altered the manner in which commercial interaction currently takes place. - See also Balfour v. Balfour (1919). 111 In Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] 1 SLR(R) 502 ("Chwee Kin Keong"), this court said at [101]: Under O 20 r 5(1) of the Rules of Court (Cap 322, R 5, 2004 Rev Ed), the court may grant leave to amend a pleading at any stage of the proceedings. Solicita tu prueba. Not all one-sided transactions or bargains are improper. The programme trigger on that website automatically and instantaneously initiated the insertion of similar contents onto all three websites. This can be supported by the decision of the High Court of Singapore in the case of Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, in which Judicial Commissioner Rajah argued that "the party who selects the means of communication should bear the consequences of any unexpected events" . Rajah J.C. in the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte. There were no such discussions with potential buyers. 57 Malcolm Tan is 30 years old and a practising advocate and solicitor. They are tainted and unenforceable. Rajah J.C. in the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte. 37 The second plaintiff was insistent in his evidence that there was no communication from the first plaintiff alerting him to the likely existence of the mistake; he contends the first plaintiff merely apprised him of a good deal and sent him the weblink to the HP website. As a matter of fairness, allowing amendments at a late stage should usually go hand in hand with granting leave to the other party to adduce further evidence, if necessary. If there appears to be no reasonable explanation for an absurd price discrepancy, it is axiomatic that any hasty conduct, such as the plaintiffs, in snapping up products, should be punctiliously scrutinised and dissected. There are many different shades of sharp practice or impropriety. He is currently self-employed and is intimately involved in the multi-level marketing sales of aromatherapy products under the Bel-Air label. 115 There is a distinct line of cases within the narrow confines of unilateral mistake where the common law has been resolutely disinclined to enforce apparent contracts. 85 Having stated the general rule, it is imperative that the rationale underlying this approach be understood. Certain Internet service providers provide the technology to inform a sender that a message has not been properly routed. If anything, certain portions of the affidavits raised even more doubts about the plaintiffs credibility. The purpose of the amendments was merely to regularise the pleadings and indeed they went no further than to summarise evidence and submissions that had already been raised. 119 It is apparent from this overview that the Canadian courts have integrated through their equitable jurisdiction the concept of common law mistake within the rubric of unconscionability. The modern approach in contract law requires very little to find the existence of consideration. 83 The defendant maintained that there was no element of surprise and/or prejudice arising from the amendments. Yet in other aspects, he could recollect, with crystal clear precision and clarity, details of what had transpired. Doctrines and Institutions of Responsible Government. He then carried out some checks on the Yahoo search engine to ascertain whether the printer model existed and whether the laser printer could be sold at more than $66. Slade, in a well reasoned article written not long after Solle v Butcher was decided, asserted: In general, it is submitted that there are no cases which support the proposition that in cases of unilateral mistake, V [the enforcing party] may obtain this relief where the contract is not void at law and there has been no misrepresentation. In turn, the ICQ chat session involving the first plaintiff and the respective plaintiffs exchange of e-mails played a significant role in undermining their credibility and claims. He too affirmed from his searches that the normal price of the laser printer was in the region of US$2,000. Because it was simply a matter of time before the error would inevitably be noticed and the pricing inevitably corrected. 42 Mark Yeow Kinn Keong has a Bachelor of Science (Economics) degree from the University of London. The recipient rule is therefore more convenient and relevant in the context of both instantaneous or near instantaneous communications. There must be consensus ad idem. 91 There is no real conundrum as to whether contractual principles apply to Internet contracts. Errors may incur wholly unexpected, and sometimes untoward, consequences as these proceedings so amply demonstrate. In Canada, the latter suffices. It will firstly discuss the fact that such a tort Our academic writing and marking services can help you! In the final analysis, it would appear that the likely existence of an internal error in pricing was clearly within his contemplation. He claimed that when he could not find the identical model on the US HP website he had assumed initially that the laser printer might be obsolete and was therefore being off-loaded cheaply at $66. 116 The term snapping up was aptly coined by JamesLJ in Tamplin v James (1880) 15ChD 215 at 221. COURT. 141 In so far as the sixth plaintiff is concerned, I emphasise that his knowledge and/or conduct of should be equated with that of the third plaintiff. 9 The defendants assertion that Samuel Teo had neither the authority nor the intention to make any alterations to the laser printers price is now accepted by the plaintiffs. (See for example the approach in Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd [1990] 1AllER 512.) The leading Canadian decision in this area is the case of McMaster University v Wilchar Construction Ltd (1971) 22DLR(3d) 9 which, incidentally, was cited with approval by the Australian High Court in Taylor v Johnson. by the earlier decision of Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com [2005] 1 SLR(R) 502, where the Court of Appeal recognised the doctrine of unilateral mistake in equity, departing from the English position in Great Peace Shipping Ltd v Tsavliris Salvage (International) Ltd [2003] QB 679; [2002] 3 WLR 1617; [2002] 4 All ER 689. Despite the general views expressed in Taylor v Johnson (1983) 151CLR 422 on equitable mistake, it seems to be generally accepted in Australia as well, that this class of cases requires special mention and consideration. The decision of V.K. 32 Satisfied with his enquiries in relation to the printer model, he returned to the HP website and placed an order for 100 laser printers at about 2.23am. She opined that situations where unilateral mistake had been considered were those involving fraud or a very high degree of misconduct. V K Rajah JC. This is one of the first prominent case that deals with the issue of web based contract. When, however, the cases provoked by these factual situations are analysed, they will be seen to fall, not into three, but only two distinct legal categories. I categorically reject their evidence in so far as it attempts to hermetically compartmentalise their knowledge and discussions. be rebutted" (per Salmon LJ in Jones v. Padavatton (1969)). This is essentially a matter of language and intention, objectively ascertained. High Court Suit No 202 of 2003. 88 The fact that the amending party has been tardy or even negligent is a factor that a court can (and in some egregious cases, should) take into account but this is by no means a decisive factor (cf Ketteman v Hansel Properties). Normally the contract is only concluded when the acceptance is communicated by the offeree to the offeror. Normally, however, the task involves no more than an objective analysis of the words used by the parties. The web merchant, unless he qualifies his offer appropriately, by making it subject to the availability of stock or some other condition precedent, could be seen as making an offer to sell an infinite supply of goods. The brief will discuss whether a tort of invasion of privacy should be developed by the courts. 151 The claims by the plaintiffs are audacious, opportunistic and contrived. Having said that, this exception must always be prudently invoked and judiciously applied; the exiguous scope of this exception is necessary to give the commercial community confidence that commercial transactions will almost invariably be honoured when all the objective contractual indicia are satisfied. As part of its business, it operates a website owned by Hewlett Packard (HP) at http://www.buyhp.com.sg (the HP website) where only HP products are sold. The payment mode opted for was cash on delivery. 156 The plaintiffs claims are dismissed. (c) the need to reach commercially sensible solutions while respecting traditional principles applicable to instances of genuine error or mistake. The essence of snapping up lies in taking advantage of a known or perceived error in circumstances which ineluctably suggest knowledge of the error. Cases of fraud and misrepresentation, and undue influence, are all catered for under other existing and uncontentious equitable rules. The rigour in limiting this scope is also critical to protect innocent third party rights that may have been acquired directly or indirectly. LOW, Kelvin Fatt Kin. Case name. It is axiomatic that normal contractual principles apply but the contractual permutations will obviously be sometimes more complex and spread over a greater magnitude of transactions. Indeed, the time may have come for the common law to shed the pretence of searching for consideration to uphold commercial contracts. Quite apart from this singularly precise timing, his exchange with Ms Toh is noteworthy for the following reason: when he told her about the various concluded purchases of the laser printers, she immediately thought it was a mistake and that HP would not honour the contracts. Indeed, in difficult cases, the courts in several common law jurisdictions have gone to extraordinary lengths to conjure up consideration. This thread helps to rationalise the development of the common law but ought not to be viewed as supporting the existence of a general test of commercial morality tantamount to the test of unconscionability invoked by equity. He graduated with an accounting degree from NTU. He appeared to be consummately familiar with Internet practices and was forced to concede that he thought it was weird and unusual when he saw the number 55 on the relevant webpages in place of the actual product description. The object of the exercise is to determine what each party intended, or must be deemed to have intended. There was also no indication that the product was being sold on promotion. 76 On Monday, 13January 2003, at about 9.15am, an employee of the defendant received a call from a prospective customer inquiring whether the defendant was aware of the posted price of $66 for the laser printers on the HP website. Pginas: 93: High Court - Suit n 202 of 2003. 94 Historically, the common law has recognised an anomaly in the contractual features pertaining to a display of goods for sale. This pricing was a mistake, which was fundamental to the contract and the complainants must have known that this absurdly low pricing was an error by the defendants. He claimed he wanted to find out how much profit he could make. We can understand why the decision in Bell v Lever Bros Ltd did not find favour with Lord DenningMR. An equitable jurisdiction to grant rescission on terms where a common fundamental mistake has induced a contract gives greater flexibility than a doctrine of common law which holds the contract void in such circumstances. The decision ofV.K. 113 The English Court of Appeal in Commission for the New Towns v Cooper (Great Britain) Ltd [1995] Ch 259, a case of common mistake, imported the concept of Nelsonian knowledge and applied the framework of various categories of knowledge outlined by Peter GibsonJ in Baden v Societe Generale pour Favoriser le Developpement du Commerce et de lIndustrie en FranceSA [1993] 1 WLR 509. 7191 RSS High Court Expand/Collapse. The complainants had ordered over 100 printers each at this price. 99 Like the somewhat arbitrary selection of the postal rule for ordinary mail, in the ultimate analysis, a default rule should be implemented for certainty, while accepting that such a rule should be applied flexibly to minimise unjustness. 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. Civil Procedure Pleadings . There is however much to be said in favour of rationalising the law of mistake under a single doctrine incorporating the best elements of common law and equity. Why? 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 E-Mail Acceptance Rule. 4, 1971, p. 331. These statements are not to be interpreted as a clarion call to rewrite commercial agreements because of a partys unreasonable or ignoble behaviour. Leave was also given to the plaintiffs to adduce further evidence, if they so desired. Please refer to the PDF copy for a print-friendly version. He is currently a supervisor in the taxation department of an international accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche, specialising in corporate taxation services. Though both of them admit to having had discussions about the website terms and conditions governing the purchases, they deny that there was any discussion between them on even the possibility of an error having taken place. If he was prepared to commit this view in writing to a larger circle of 54 friends and business associates after his communication with the second and third plaintiffs, he would certainly have shared this view with his close friends with even greater candour and detail. 117 It should be emphasised that this stream of authority is consistently recognised by all the major common law jurisdictions. Alarm bells would have sounded immediately. 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. The decision of V.K. Chwee Kin Keong and Others v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR 594; [2004] SGHC 71 Suit No: Suit 202/2003/E Decision Date: 12 Apr 2004 Court: High Court Coram: V K Rajah JC Counsel: Tan Sok Ling, Malcolm Tan and Mohan Das Vijayaratnam (Tan S L and Partners) for plaintiffs, Philip Fong Yeng Fatt and Doris Chia Ming Lai (Harry Elias This contention is wholly untenable. After establishing from the web pages that the price quoted for the laser printer was indeed $66, he proceeded to make searches through search engines like Yahoo and visited the website of Hardware.com. The ETA is essentially permissive. The court held that the acceptance has been completed once it is posted although here, the defendants actually did not receive the letter before they sold it to someone else. It is therefore incumbent on the web merchant to protect himself, as he has both the means to do so and knowledge relating to the availability of any product that is being marketed. It is, in large measure, determined by making an objective appraisal of the exchanges between the parties. The very foundations of predictability, certainty and efficacy, underpinning contractual dealings, will be undermined if the law and/or equity expands the scope of the mistake exception with alacrity or uncertainty. In-house law team, Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] 1 SLR(R) 502, Contract unilateral mistake Internet Contract Consensus ad Idem Meeting of the Minds Acceptance Offer Void Error. 14 The first, second and fourth plaintiffs became acquainted with each other when they studied at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He in effect forwarded the first plaintiffs e-mail to them. 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. Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:42 I want at least one for personal use 2 would be good coz my gf needs one too any more than that would be a bonus ;-), Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:43 anyway, I dont mind buying over if you have frens who want to sell buy at twice the price!! He claims he then accessed the US HP website either through a Google web search engine or by abbreviating the url of the HP website. So there is a contract and therefore the defendant is liable in breach of contract. There was no element of surprise or prejudice to the plaintiffs as the points raised had already been developed by the defendant and addressed by the plaintiffs. Reference this When the defendant learnt of the error, it promptly removed the advertisement from its websites, and informed the plaintiffs as well as 778 others who had placed orders for a total of 4,086 laser printers that the price posting was an unfortunate error, and that it would therefore not be meeting the orders. Despite the general views expressed in. Websites often provide a service where online purchases may be made. 133 It is however clear that the law should not take cognisance of bad bargains and misapprehension that do not affect a fundamental or essential aspect of a contractual relationship. The Vienna Sales Convention (the Convention) applies in Singapore as a consequence of the Sale of Goods (United Nations Convention) Act (Cap283A, 1996Rev Ed). The plaintiffs also assert in their submissions that if contracts are only upheld if parties acted honourably there would be very few contracts left standing in the commercial world. The rules of offer and acceptance are satisfied and the parties are of one mind. The effect of Solle v Butcher [1950] 1 KB 671 is not to supplement or mitigate the common law: it is to say that Bell v Lever Bros Ltd was wrongly decided. It is asserted that since mistake had not been pleaded as an equitable defence, equity cannot be invoked by the defendant. China-Singapore "One Belt One Road" International Business Cases Digest Part 1 -"" () 457-463 (2020, published by the Singapore and People's Republic of China Supreme Courts . Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:43 yeah man whats the original price? The pleadings, in such instances, merely formalise what is already before the court. Samuel Teo had used all these notional numerals on the training template. With reference to the judgement, the case explores pricing mistakes by online stores. Gill & Duffus Landauer Ltd v London Export Corp GmbH [1982] 2 Lloyd's Rep. 627. He would make some basic enquiries to ascertain whether there is anything faulty with the product in an attempt to seek an explanation for or understanding of the basis for the price discrepancy; he might alternatively try and ascertain whether perhaps the price differential is part of some spectacular promotional exercise. case concerning the purchase of laser printers from an online retailer, Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall 76 : To effect the purchase transactions on the respective websites, the plaintiffs had to navigate through several web pages. From time to time they communicate with each other via the Internet and the short messaging system (sms). 2. The issue in this case was whether the pricing was a mistake and if the contract would be fulfilled. While they did not invariably admit that their searches were made prior to each of the respective transactions, it was plain that they did not tell the whole truth about what they knew, how they knew it and when they knew it. His Internet research alone would have confirmed that. In effect the Internet conveniently integrates into a single screen traditional advertising, catalogues, shop displays/windows and physical shopping. That said, it also offers new avenues of evidential proof offering intimate insights into realtime thought processes and reactions. 133 It is however clear that the law should not take cognisance of bad bargains and misapprehension that do not affect a fundamental or essential aspect of a contractual relationship. He is described by his counsel in submissions as a prudent and careful person. He worked in an accounting firm, Ernst and Young, for three years.

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