21 The first plaintiff must have realised at the outset that he would have to explain with a certain measure of credibility the purport and significance of all his Internet communications between 1.00am and 3.00am on 13January 2003. 58 The fifth plaintiff was first informed by the second plaintiff at about 2.30am about cheap laser printers being available for purchase. Her evidence was inconsequential and did not assist the plaintiffs. Chwee KIN Keong AND Others v Digilandmall.COM PTE LTD [2004 ] SGHC 71 paginator.book page 594 tuesday, november 2009 7:05 am 594 singapore law reports (reissue . 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. He admitted in cross-examination to being the lawyer for this group of people when they had questions like these in the present proceedings. 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. However, at the actual hearing of the applications, plaintiffs counsel opposed any amendments whatsoever to the defence and sought leave to withdraw the plaintiffs earlier unilateral amendments. It is essential that the law be perceived as embodying rationality and fairness while respecting the commercial imperative of certainty. Having ascertained the true market price, it would have appeared crystal clear, given the huge disparity in the pricing, that a manifest mistake had occurred. 26 I respectfully agree with the reasoning of ShawJ in Can-Dive Services Ltd v Pacific Coast Energy Corp (1995), 21CLR(2d) 39 (BCSC), where he said at 69-70 that: While I agree with what Madam Justice Mclachlin said so far as it goes, I do not believe she intended to imply that there must be a conscious taking advantage by one party of the other in all cases. She opined that situations where unilateral mistake had been considered were those involving fraud or a very high degree of misconduct. LOW, Kelvin Fatt Kin. 103 The amalgam of factors a court will have to consider in risk allocation ought to include: (a) the need to observe the principle of upholding rather than destroying contracts, (b) the need to facilitate the transacting of electronic commerce, and. , In unilateral mistake, only one of the parties is mistaken. 137 Furthermore, from the evidence adduced, it became clear that the defendant had intentionally put the words call to enquire instead of, say, the phrase subject to stock availability in an attempt to entice would-be purchasers to place orders with them. He is currently employed as an accountant in an accounting firm, Ernst & Young. They assert that spending only $105,996 to procure laser printers with an actual market value of $6,189,524 is wholly irrelevant; they are entitled to a good bargain. Contract Acceptance by Email - LawTeacher.net 30 Tan Wei Teck is 30 years old. I reject this. Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:43 yeah man whats the original price? In light of this, the parties did not address me on the issue of when the contract was formed, though this appears to be a relevant issue depending on which rule is adopted. His revelation that he did not know if this is an error or whether HP will honour this purchase, not to mention the articulation of his hope that by the time you see this email, the price is still at S$66.00, 27 The first plaintiff obviously took the view that the advertisement should be acted upon urgently. Singapore Comparative Law Review 2019 (SCLR 2019) - Issuu What is urged is that, owing to a common error as to some fundamental fact, the agreement is robbed of all efficacy. They proceeded to file their amendments to the statement of claim as if leave had already been given. http://www.buy.hp.com.sg/hp/StandardProduct.cfm?prodid=HPC9960A. 139 Next, the defendant contends that no consideration passed from the plaintiffs to them. In the context of the present proceedings, the extra-judicial observations of Lord Steyn in Contract Law: Fulfilling the Reasonable Expectations of Honest Men (1997) 113LQR 433 at 433 are particularly apposite: A thread runs through our contract law that effect must be given to reasonable expectations of honest men. 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. In addition, each of the confirmatory e-mail responses states at the outset: [W]e will be calling you in the near future to deliver the products to the address shown below. FEATURE - Law Gazette The second, third, fourth and sixth plaintiffs are the only individuals who ordered more than a hundred laser printers each. He was amicus curiae to the Court of Appeal of Singapore in the case of Chwee Kin Keong & Ors v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, the leading Singapore case on unilateral mistake in the digital environment. The common law has drawn the line in Bell v Lever Bros Ltd. The recipients of this e-mail included the second, fourth, fifth plaintiffs and Tan Cheng Peng, the third plaintiffs girlfriend. The decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in, 25 The law of mistake was discussed in depth by McLachlinCJBC in. Case Note: Singapore - CORE Where common mistake is pleaded, the presence of agreement is admitted. It appears to suggest that even if an offer is snapped up, the contract is not void. 17 Having called the second and third plaintiffs at about 2.00am, the first plaintiff also sent them, via e-mail, a weblink of the relevant HP website pages. Case law chwee kin keong v digilandmallcom pte ltd A contract will not be concluded unless the parties are agreed as to its material terms. PDF Unilateral Mistake in Contract: Five Degrees of Fusion of Common Lawand The first, second and third plaintiffs have been friends for a long time and are bound by common business interests. Limit orders: order to be executed only when the desired price is available. It has been pithily said that the rules of procedure should be viewed as a handmaiden and not a mistress, to be slavishly followed. 87 It appeared to me that the extract from Singapore Civil Procedure 2003 relied on by the plaintiffs was blindly lifted from earlier editions of the English White Book without any consideration as to how it dovetails with the present procedural climate. The only court judgement on the theme is Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, a judgement of the Singapore High Court. It is simply inconceivable that when he entered into the purchase transaction, he did not know, or at the very least did not have a real and abiding belief that the price posting was an error. The question is what is capable of displacing that apparent agreement. The price of the laser printer, prior to 3.36pm on 8January 2003, was stipulated as $3,854 (exclusive of GST) on both the Digilandmall and HP websites (the websites), and as $3,448 on the Digiland commerce website. Rajah J.C. in the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte. He then zealously sent at about 2.58am, an e-mail to 54 persons, all of whom were friends and/or business associates. On any objective construction, the presumed intention must be that in the context of its confirmatory content, the words call to enquire in the availability portion of the contract related to the timing of the delivery rather than being subject to physical availability of the laser printer or stock. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. 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). In light of these general observations, I now address the law on unilateral mistake. Normally the contract is only concluded when the acceptance is communicated by the offeree to the offeror. High Court and Court of Appeal, recently, in a number of case . 98 Once an offer is sent over the Internet, the sender loses control over the route and delivery time of the message. Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd Case No.s Suit 202/2003/E (for the first instance), CA/30/2004 (for the appeal) Name and level of courts High Court of Singapore(at first instance), Singapore Court of Appeal Member of courts VK Rajah, JC (for the first instance), Chao Hick Tin JA, Kan Ting Chiu J, Yong Pung How CJ 108 Chitty on Contracts (28th Ed, 1999) vol1 observes at para5-035: It is not clear whether for the mistake to be operative it must actually be known to the other party, or whether it is enough that it ought to have been apparent to any reasonable man. "Unilateral Mistake in Law and Equity: Solle v Butcher Reinstated" by There were altogether 1,008 purchase orders for the laser printers placed by 784 individuals between 8 and 13January 2003. 150 The plaintiffs have contended that this court ought to follow the decision in Taylor v Johnson and hold that the contract is not void under common law but voidable only in equity. To assert that as a rule, leave to amend particulars will be refused, is both illogical and incorrect. The first issue dealt with references made by the plaintiffs to certain embargoed material. The plaintiffs orders were processed by the defendants automated system and confirmation notes were automatically despatched to the plaintiffs within a few minutes. Altogether different considerations may arise if a party, at a late stage, seeks through an amendment to adduce further evidence to support that same amendment. He was also involved in initiating the Channel NewsAsia report (see [78] and [79] infra). There was a promise to pay made by the plaintiffs in exchange for the delivery of the requisite laser printers. They are not entitled to the costs of the subsequent brief hearing, for reasons I now deal with summarily. 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. For example, in the Singapore High Court decision of Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR 594 ("Digilandmall"), affirmed on appeal in Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] 1 SLR 502 without considering this particular issue, V K Rajah JC (as he then was) observed, as follows (at [139]): Doctrine and fairness in the law of contract - Cambridge Core He also claimed to have talked to buyers in the market about reselling the laser printers and that the failure to procure the units would tarnish his reputation. Just as the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 was needed to temper the effect of the common law doctrine of frustration, so there is scope for legislation to give greater flexibility to our law of mistake than the common law allows. 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. This is an area that needs to be rationalised in a coherent and structured manner. The initial order for 30 laser printers was placed at round 3.45am while the second order for 300 units was placed at around 3.53am. [2004 ] SGHC 71 - Court Judgement - Chwee Kin Keong and Others v Ltd.1 has the makings of a student's classic for several rea- Having pointed out 6 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 . The court has to be astute and adopt a pragmatic and judicious stance in resolving such issues. Sometimes this is made explicit by judges; more often it is the implied basis of the courts decision. There are many different shades of sharp practice or impropriety. 31 He admitted receiving a call from the first plaintiff at about 2.00am but claimed the first plaintiff merely apprised him of a good deal. 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. The number of orders he placed was nothing short of brazen. Disclaimer: This work was produced by one of our expert legal writers, as a learning aid to help law students with their studies. Singapore Court of Appeal. 127 The attempt to conflate the concept of common law mistake and the equitable jurisdiction over mistake is understandable but highly controversial. In Chwee Kin Keong v . He is currently self-employed and is intimately involved in the multi-level marketing sales of aromatherapy products under the Bel-Air label. 109 This cautious statement by Chitty needs to be carefully reconsidered in the context of recent developments in this area of law. June 16, 2022; Posted by why do chavs wear tracksuits; 16 . 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. To determine the profit potential, the second plaintiff had to take steps to ascertain the true market price of the laser printer which he did. 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. 24 While the first plaintiff conceded that he had communicated to the second and third plaintiffs the existence of a good deal, he maintained he did not discuss the possibility of the pricing being a mistake. Phang, Controversy in Common Mistake [2003] Conv 247; Reynolds, Reconsider the Contract Textbooks (2003) 119LQR 177. They were selling a HP laser printer and an employee accidently made a mistake as to the price of the printer on their website. PDF Case Note - School of Advanced Study Given his professional and business background, he must have realised that the $66 price posting on the HP website was an error. This is essentially a matter of language and intention, objectively ascertained. The leading Canadian decision in this area is the case of, 120 The widening of jurisdiction to embrace a broad equitable jurisdiction could well encourage litigious behaviour and promote uncertainty. 60 Prior to placing his order, he was again contacted by the second plaintiff. The rules of offer and acceptance are satisfied and the parties are of one mind. In common mistake, both parties make the same mistake. It is pertinent to note that she placed orders for 32 laser printers including 20 units she ordered on behalf of her sister. 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. Alternatively, knowledge may be readily inferred from what would be regarded as commonly known or notorious facts in the context of the transaction. 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. It takes the view that there is no jurisdiction in equity to rescind a contract that is valid at common law, on the basis of mistake. His revelation that he did not know if this is an error or whether HP will honour this purchase, not to mention the articulation of his hope that by the time you see this email, the price is still at S$66.00 coz they might change it anytime, are all compelling in reflecting his state of mind and awareness that an error had occurred. By their own admission, they made Internet searches through various search engines to ascertain the profits they could make. The sixth plaintiff is precluded from asserting his ignorance. A steady stream of decisions from common law courts indicate a measured but nevertheless distinctly incremental willingness to extend the scope of the exception to not just actual knowledge, but deemed or constructive knowledge as well. 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 he was prepared to commit this view in writing to a larger circle of 54 friends and business associates, 47 Not content with making his own purchases, he woke up his brother and transacted 330 units on his behalf. The case of Chwee Kin Keong & Ors v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] SGHC 71, and the decision by VK Rajah JC, has received much public attention. Other Jurisdictions. Whether the parties have reached agreement on the terms is not determined by evidence of the subjective intention of each party. 48 The third plaintiff annexed to his affidavit the transcript of the Channel NewsAsia report where he was quoted. In the absence of proper and full arguments on the issue of which rule is to be preferred, I do not think it is appropriate for me to give any definitive views in these proceedings on this very important issue. A number of them have very close relationships, with some of them even sharing common business interests. HIGH COURT. 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. Chwee Kin Keong vs Digilandmall.com - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt / .pptx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. Altogether he sought to purchase 760 units, the largest number of orders placed by anyone between 8 and 13January 2003. The most that the court can do in these circumstances is to refuse E [the other party, who wants the contract held void] specific performance, which lies in the discretion of the court and will probably be refused where E has been guilty of some degree of sharp practice. 68 Yeow Kinn Oei is 29 years old and the brother of the third plaintiff. While commercial entities ought not to be given a licence to relax their vigilance, the policy considerations in refusing to enforce mistaken agreements militate against attaching undue weight to the carelessness involved in spawning the mistake. Bulletin_11_2009 - CLJLaw Mistakes that negative consent do not inexorably result in contracts being declared void. 85 Having stated the general rule, it is imperative that the rationale underlying this approach be understood. There are in this connection two schools of thought. Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall Pte Ltd - LawTeacher.net 155 The Internet has revolutionised commerce and radically altered the manner in which commercial interaction currently takes place. 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. Established common law principles, in the arena of mistake, ought not be trifled with unless they are so obviously anachronistic and ill-suited to commercial and legal pragmatism. [2005] 1 SLR(R) Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall Pte Ltd 521. whether constructive knowledge by a non-mistaken party of the mistake would suffice to vitiate the contract ab initio. Certainly, none of them had ever been induced to conduct transactions on such a scale on the Internet for any product, let alone sophisticated commercial laser printers. While this case needs to be treated with some caution, as it appears to integrate concepts of law and equity, I respectfully agree with the approach in so far as it deals with deemed knowledge. 55 The fourth plaintiff is technologically savvy and runs an Internet business with the second plaintiff. 18 He said he later conducted some searches using the Google search engine and ascertained that the laser printer could be sold at about US$1,300 in certain markets. A prospective purchaser is entitled to rely on the terms of the web advertisement. Quoine Pte Ltd v B2C2 Ltd: A Commentary - SSRN Amendments after conclusion of submissions. In Canada, the latter suffices. That said, it also offers new avenues of evidential proof offering intimate insights into realtime thought processes and reactions. After hearing their evidence, observing them and considering the submissions made on their behalf, there was no doubt in my mind that they were fully conscious that an unfortunate and egregious mistake had indeed been made by the defendant. In Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd ,1 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. 149 It is clear from the authorities reviewed that such a contract, if entered into by a party with actual or presumed knowledge of an error, is void from the outset. He is currently self-employed and is intimately involved in the multi-level marketing sales of aromatherapy products under the Bel-Air label. Date of Verdicts: 12 April 2004, 13 January 2005. 69 The sixth plaintiff was awakened by his brother, the third plaintiff, at about 3.00am. Indeed, in difficult cases, the courts in several common law jurisdictions have gone to extraordinary lengths to conjure up consideration. Counsels approach is flawed. (c) the need to reach commercially sensible solutions while respecting traditional principles applicable to instances of genuine error or mistake. The defendant, Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, were an online IT company that sold related software and hardware from Singapore. in the High Court decision of Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd,2 from the perspective of economics. His evidence pertaining to the material points of knowledge and his communications with the other plaintiffs lacked credibility. It can be persuasively argued that e-mails involving transactions embraced by the Convention are only effective on reaching the recipient. Ltd.1 has the makings of a student's classic for several reasons: it presents a textbook . 33 After his first order, the second plaintiff contacted the fourth and fifth plaintiffs informing them about the laser printers. In Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd , 1 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. They contended that the entire ICQ conversation, infused with such a jocular tone, should be disregarded. He received this information through an sms message. 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 terms of the offer are clear and unambiguous and the offeree accepts the offer according to its true sense, but it must have been obvious (and known by the offeree) that the offeror did not intend to make an offer in those terms. PDF Emily M. Weitzenboeck, 2012 Norwegian Research Center for - UiO Given its global reach and ever changing technological advancements, Internet usage will pose a myriad of issues for resolution. Palm tree justice will only serve to inject uncertainty into the law. The case went before both the High Court and the Court of Appeal. An e-mail, while bearing some similarity to a postal communication, is in some aspects fundamentally different. The CISG has currently been adopted by 95 Contracting States world-wide. It is, in large measure, determined by making an objective appraisal of the exchanges between the parties. Such conduct is akin to that of an unscrupulous commercial predator seeking to take advantage of an error by an unsuspecting prey by pouncing upon it before the latter has an opportunity to react or raise a shield of defence. V K Rajah JC: Para continuar leyendo. A-Z of Cases | Carlil & Carbolic - Law Study Resources They were selling a HP laser printer and an employee accidently made a mistake as to the price of the printer on their website.. Cases This final mass e-mail only reinforces my view that the first plaintiff consistently and continuously entertained the view that the price posting on the HP website was a mistake. In doing so, they appear to have also conflated equitable and common law concepts. Evidence was given that if phone calls were indeed placed, they would from time to time limit the number of sales. Despite the general views expressed in. Having ascertained that the laser printer was being advertised at $66, he decided to undertake further online searches through Yahoo.com and Ebay.com. In the fifth plaintiffs affidavit evidence, he asserted emphatically and unequivocally that at no point did I ever think that the price of the printers were a mistake. I granted leave to both parties to file applications to amend the pleadings. 123 One view maintains that the mistaken party can either attempt to have the contract declared void at common law if the mistake is fundamental or radical, or alternatively seek a remedy in equity, which could include rescission. The issue in this case was whether the pricing was a mistake and if the contract would be fulfilled. The recipient rule is therefore more convenient and relevant in the context of both instantaneous or near instantaneous communications. Chwee Kin Keong decision - Chwee Kin Keong and Others v Digilandmall Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR 594; - Studocu Caso chwee kin keong and others digilandmall.com pte ltd slr sghc 71 suit no: suit decision 12 apr 2004 date: court: coram: counsel: high court rajah jc tan sok IgnorarExperimenta 'Pergunta a um Especialista' Pergunta a um especialista Certainty in commercial transactions should not be trifled with, as this will inevitably affect how commercial and business exchanges are respected and effected. While the first plaintiff was the source of the information concerning the price posting, the second plaintiff actively communicated with all of the plaintiffs (save the sixth plaintiff), throughout the material period. However, not all principles will or can apply in the same manner that they apply to traditional paper-based and oral contracts. Indeed, the time may have come for the common law to shed the pretence of searching for consideration to uphold commercial contracts. Solicita tu prueba. Nor could he satisfactorily explain why he initially made the Internet searches to ensure the offer was genuine. In these proceedings, it appears that the purchases made by the sixth plaintiff were not accompanied by a corresponding receipt of acceptances, as his e-mail inbox was full. In effect the Internet conveniently integrates into a single screen traditional advertising, catalogues, shop displays/windows and physical shopping. 59 Upon duly accessing the HP website through the hyperlink sent to him by the second plaintiff, the fifth plaintiff ascertained that the laser printer was priced at $66. He tried to convey the impression that it never struck him that a mistake in the price posting of the laser printer could have occurred. It was only then that the defendant promptly took steps to remove all references to the laser printer from all three websites.

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