The plaintiffs refute that the error exonerates the defendant; they insist that a concluded contract is sacrosanct and must be honoured. High Court and Court of Appeal, recently, in a number of case . 53 He claimed that seeing the same price on the Digilandmall website confirmed his view that there had been no mistake. Certainty in commercial transactions should not be trifled with, as this will inevitably affect how commercial and business exchanges are respected and effected. Case Note: Singapore - CORE Borneo United Sawmills Sdn Bhd v. MUI Continental Insurance Bhd (Marine insurance - Loss of goods - Claim for loss of goods under Marine Cargo Policy) [2009] 8 CLJ 217. See now, also, It appears to suggest that even if an offer is snapped up, the contract is not void. Looking for a flexible role? This was summarily resolved. Carlill V Carbolic Smoke Ball Case - 1840 Words | Bartleby Ltd. has the makings of a student's classic for several reasons, including: 1. In effect the Internet conveniently integrates into a single screen traditional advertising, catalogues, shop displays/windows and physical shopping. Nor is it disputed that Samuel Teo, or any of the other employees of the defendant, was unaware at all material times of the dramatic chain of events so unwittingly initiated by the former. 12 The plaintiffs both collectively and individually maintained adamantly that while they thought that the price of $66 appeared to be a good deal they did not think that the website prices had been mistakenly placed or inserted. There must be consensus ad idem. Being fully conscious of the pivotal nature of this point, I have duly accorded particular attention to the evidence and credibility of each of the plaintiffs. 34 He also visited the Digilandmall website to familiarise himself with their standard terms and conditions. Part of the training module included hands-on training with a new template for a Price Mass Upload function. 138 Effectively, the defendant was attempting in this contention to assert that it could have its cake and eat it as well. In short, where does the justice reside? He subsequently sent the web link to the Epinions website to the first and second plaintiffs. 6 On Wednesday, 8January 2003 between 3.00pm and 4.00pm, DILs employees conducted a training session at the defendants premises. 47 Not content with making his own purchases, he woke up his brother and transacted 330 units on his behalf. I must add that these were far from being ordinary printers for home use. One of the few cases on electronic contract formation in Singapore was Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall. It is plain that the defendant had given careful consideration to this issue and was prepared to contract on the basis that it would be able to comply with any orders hence, there was no reference to any order being subject to stock availability. Altogether he sought to purchase 760 units, the largest number of orders placed by anyone between 8 and 13January 2003. His girlfriend, Tan Cheng Peng, is also a director and shareholder of the company in which he has a stakeholding with the first and second plaintiffs. He too affirmed from his searches that the normal price of the laser printer was in the region of US$2,000. PDF Blips And Blunders: The Law Concerning Mistakes Made In Electronic C {Q V Evidence was given that if phone calls were indeed placed, they would from time to time limit the number of sales. These statements are not to be interpreted as a clarion call to rewrite commercial agreements because of a partys unreasonable or ignoble behaviour. 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. Has an agreement been reached or not? The payment mode selected by the third plaintiff was cash on delivery. 51 The fourth plaintiff received a phone call from the second plaintiff at about 2.00am, informing him that there was money to be made through the purchase of laser printers. 82 The plaintiffs strenuously opposed the defendants amendments principally on the ground it was made at a late juncture. 25 The mass e-mail at 2.58am is cursorily dismissed by counsel for the plaintiffs as poor use of language that ought not to be taken literally in light of the early hours of the morning. Where either mutual or unilateral mistake is pleaded, the very existence of agreement is denied. It was held that the contract between the parties was void. Furthermore, they relied on a passage from, At the trial leave to amend particulars will as a rule be refused (, 84 It is axiomatic that a court will generally be cautious if not reluctant to effect any amendments once the hearing has commenced; even more so once the evidential phase of the proceedings has been completed. When pressed why he asked MsToh to do this research, the fifth plaintiffs response was unsatisfactory. Neither party raised any objections. Homestead Assets Sdn Bhd v. Contramec . The fact that it may have been negligent is not a relevant factor in these proceedings. In the light of that consideration we can see no way that Solle v Butcher can stand with Bell v Lever Bros Ltd. In light of these general observations, I now address the law on unilateral mistake. Indeed, the time may have come for the common law to shed the pretence of searching for consideration to uphold commercial contracts. 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. 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. In common mistake, both parties make the same mistake. 48 The third plaintiff annexed to his affidavit the transcript of the Channel NewsAsia report where he was quoted. In Chwee Kin Keong and ors v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, 5 VK Rajah JC, as His Honour then was, decided against the rule-based approach in Moss v Malings. 102 Inevitably mistakes will occur in the course of electronic transmissions. Lord Griffiths in, 87 It appeared to me that the extract from, 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 (, 95 The known availability of stock could be an important distinguishing factor between a physical sale and an Internet transaction. The argument is that, despite appearances, there is no real correspondence of offer and acceptance and that therefore the transaction must necessarily be void. 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. He then zealously sent at about 2.58am, an e-mail to 54 persons, all of whom were friends and/or business associates. He is also a director and shareholder in a company engaging in wholesale trade, together with the second and third plaintiffs. The elements of an offer and acceptance are, 139 Next, the defendant contends that no consideration passed from the plaintiffs to them. 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. 62 Like the second plaintiff, the fifth plaintiff played a pivotal role in the events leading to these proceedings. As the Channel NewsAsia report so succinctly summarised they saw a great opportunity and grabbed it. The e-mails sent at 2.34am were also captioned Go load it now! The recipients of this e-mail included the second, fourth, fifth plaintiffs and Tan Cheng Peng, the third plaintiffs girlfriend. 29 The first plaintiff struck me as an opportunistic entrepreneur. Our conclusion is that it is impossible to reconcile Solle v Butcher with Bell v Lever Bros Ltd. The issue could be critical where third party rights are in issue as in. SingletonJ held at 568: The offer was wrongly expressed, and the defendants by their evidence, and by the correspondence, have satisfied me that the plaintiff could not reasonably have supposed that that offer contained the offerers real intention. 144 I find, in the alternative, that the plaintiffs, given each of their backgrounds, would in any event, each have separately realised and appreciated, before placing their purchase orders, that a manifest mistake had occurred even if no communications on the error had taken place between them. 50 Ow Eng Hwee, 29 years old, is another network marketing entrepreneur. Chwee Kin Keong and Others v Pte Ltd PDF fileChwee Kin He has common business interests with the first, third and fourth plaintiffs. 67 MsToh subsequently did some research on how companies which had committed similar mistakes over the Internet handled the aftermath. You may find the status of your order by calling us at (phone number given) Special instructions: Please call to advise delivery date and time. These considerations take precedence over the culpability associated with causing the mistake. 89 In the circumstances, I had little hesitation in allowing the amendments sought by the defendant. 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. This judgment text has undergone conversion so that it is mobile and web-friendly. Web merchants ought to ensure that they either contract out of the receipt rule or expressly insert salient terms within the contract to deal with issues such as a choice of law, jurisdiction and other essential terms relating to the passing of risk and payment. The defendant was entitled to stake its entire defence on the basis of common law, though it would have been prudent ex abundanti cautela to have asserted the equitable position in the alternative. This was not noticed by the company until over 4,000 printers were ordered. Daniel was previously a partner and head of the technology practice at Messrs Rajah & Tann. This is a matter perhaps best left to law reform rather than to incremental judge-made law which may sow the seeds of confusion and harvest the returns of uncertainty. 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" . Basic principles of contract law continue to prevail in contracts made on the Internet. The defendants wanted to sell some hare skins to the plaintiffs. This price was much lower than the actual retail price, and had been posted on the defendant's website by mistake. Despite the general views expressed in. Certainty in commercial transactions should not be trifled with, as this will inevitably affect how commercial and business exchanges are respected and effected. He classifies mistake in the following manner at 386: If attention is fixed merely on the factual situations, there are three possible types of mistake: common, mutual and unilateral. 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 Bell v Lever Bros Ltd [1932] AC 161 and Solle v Butcher. This can result from human interphasing, machine error or a combination of such factors. Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corp. [1955] 2 Q.B. Online Pricing Mistakes | Emerald Insight Why? 97 Different rules may apply to e-mail transactions and worldwide web transactions. In that sense, it is akin to ordinary posting. They are all well-educated professionals articulate, entrepreneurial and, quite bluntly, streetwise and savvy individuals. 28 In any event, the first plaintiffs commercial background and business experience alone would have amply alerted him to the likelihood of the pricing being a mistake, even without his conversation with Desmond. It was the defendants computer system. 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. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:24 just ordered 3 colour lazer printer for S$66.00 each. Web Communication: A Review Of Chwee Kin Keong And Others v. Digilandmall.com pte ltd by Rokiah Kadir [2009] 8 CLJ xxi. Their It can be noted, however, that while s15 of the ETA appears to be inclined in favour of the receipt rule, commentaries indicate that it is not intended to affect substantive law. 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. 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. He admitted in cross-examination to being the lawyer for this group of people when they had questions like these in the present proceedings. How come got such thing? The Question about Validity of Postal Rule - lawteacher.net Is this a case of poetic justice? 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 .
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