PDF Emily M. Weitzenboeck, 2012 Norwegian Research Center for - UiO After receiving the e-mail from the first plaintiff, he visited the relevant HP website pages. In such cases, where the purchaser has readily accessible means from the very same computer screen, to ascertain through a simple search whether a mistake has taken place, the onus could be upon him to exonerate himself of imputed knowledge of the mistake. As the Channel NewsAsia report so succinctly summarised they saw a great opportunity and grabbed it. Between 3.13am and 4.00am the second plaintiff revisited the website four times placing four further orders for 20 laser printers each time. Defence counsel indicated that he wanted to regularise the position on the agency relationship between third and sixth plaintiffs which had been thrashed out during cross-examination; he also wished to plead additional particulars of the respective plaintiffs actual knowledge of or belief in a mistake having occurred, which had emerged both before and during the hearing. She opined that situations where unilateral mistake had been considered were those involving fraud or a very high degree of misconduct. Having expressed my views on consideration, I should also add for good measure that, in any event, there is ample consideration. 80 Upon the conclusion of submissions, I directed counsel to appear before me. 6 On Wednesday, 8January 2003 between 3.00pm and 4.00pm, DILs employees conducted a training session at the defendants premises. Do you have a 2:1 degree or higher? 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. The law ought to take a practical approach in dealing with such cases if it appears that by exercising reasonable care the true facts ought to be known. 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. 73 The sixth plaintiffs orders did not receive matching confirmations from the defendant as his e-mail box was full. To that extent, his evidence that he subsequently dismissed the notion altogether is unacceptable. 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. 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. This gives their courts a broad and elastic jurisdiction to deal with commercially inappropriate behaviour. After placing his second order, he admitted making further searches on the Internet to fortify my view that the price of the $66 per printer was not a mistake He was also the only plaintiff who placed an order on the Digilandmall website. It is unequivocally unethical conduct tantamount to sharp practice. Again he attempted to minimise the impact of these observations by saying his subsequent searches erased all such doubts. 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. 96 In an Internet sale, a prospective purchaser is not able to view the physical stock available. One reason for this is the eternal tension faced by courts and judges alike in seeking a just equilibrium between commercial certainty and justice in a particular case. I find it inconceivable, to say the least, that the fifth plaintiff would have placed an order for 100 laser printers without the conviction that it was in fact a current market model with a real and substantial resale value. 142 The plaintiffs were bound by personal relationships as well as past and present common commercial interests. At 4.16am he placed another order for one laser printer, by credit card, on the HP website. To my mind, the confirmation through the subsequent searches that the actual price of the laser printer was, in fact, US$2,000 would, if anything, have affirmed his belief that an error had occurred. Once again, however, this does not deprive E of his legal remedies; nor does it avail V if he wishes to recover property which he may have transferred under the contract. 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. I would not however invariably equate the required conduct with fraud. The issue in this case was whether the pricing was a mistake and if the contract would be fulfilled. Inflexible and mechanical rules lead to injustice. Where common mistake is pleaded, the presence of agreement is admitted. 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. First, it is clear that the line of Australian and Canadian cases have broadened their equitable jurisdiction on the strength of dicta attributable principally to Lord Denning. 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. He said that he wanted to be sure that the offer on the HP website was genuine. 39 The sequence of orders placed by the second plaintiff in the short space of an hour and a half deserves some mention. 7 At about 3.36pm, Samuel Teo, an employee of DIL, inadvertently uploaded the contents of the training template onto the Digiland commerce website operated by DIL, in place of the test website allocated for the training. Not all one-sided transactions or bargains are improper. The case of, The offer was wrongly expressed, and the defendants by their evidence, and by the correspondence, have satisfied me that the plaintiff, 116 The term snapping up was aptly coined by JamesLJ in, 117 It should be emphasised that this stream of authority is consistently recognised by all the major common law jurisdictions. 128 The most significant judicial pronouncement supporting this view emanates from the recent English Court of Appeal in Great Peace Shipping Ltd v Tsavliris Salvage (International) Ltd [2003] QB 679, a case of common mistake. PDF E-commerce Contract For Sale Of Printers Held Void For Obvious Mistake They have taken into account both the English and Australian authorities in distilling the jurisprudence in this area. He claims visiting, inter alia, the Epinions and Hardwarezone websites, and though it appears that there was at the material time a discussion thread on the error on the Hardwarezone website, the fourth plaintiff denied having seen this. I granted leave to both parties to file applications to amend the pleadings. At 4.16am he placed another order for one laser printer, by credit card, on the HP website. The individualistic ethic seeks to maximise individual goals and the community ethic seeks to set norms for commercial morality and to ensure that fair dealing and community cohesiveness are observed and maintained. I agree that this exception should be kept within a very narrow compass. Case Note: Singapore - CORE There are persuasive arguments against extending the litmus test of unconscionability to all mistake-type situations. It argues that the decision is both fair and economically grounded, and proposes an alternative view to that offered by classical contract law - one that sees fairness intertwined - See also Balfour v. Balfour (1919). HIGH COURT. MrTan said: As long as we get out [sic] equitable compensation, we should be able to accept lesser terms, but thats just under consideration as well.. Indeed, upon re-examination, he attempted to distance himself from the portion of his affidavit suggesting that the possibility of a genuine mistake had crossed his mind after the first transaction. 101 RSS Intellectual Property Office of Singapore Expand/Collapse. 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. Inflexible and mechanical rules lead to injustice. The ETA is essentially permissive. In Canada, the latter suffices. 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. 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. 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. Altogether, the second plaintiff purchased 180 units, opting for cash on delivery as the payment mode. Phang, Controversy in Common Mistake [2003] Conv 247; Reynolds, Reconsider the Contract Textbooks (2003) 119LQR 177. There are, however, other sound reasons to argue against such a rule in favour of the recipient rule. While it is possible that the reporters could have exercised some latitude in penning the reports, they would in essence be conveying, at the very least, summaries and impressions of their interviews with the second, third and fifth plaintiffs. PDF Blips And Blunders: The Law Concerning Mistakes Made In Electronic C {Q V The essence is not so much in the nature of the amendment but rather in the consequences flowing from any amendment to the pleadings. The quintessential approach of the law is to preserve rather than to undermine contracts. 13 The first plaintiff, Chwee Kin Keong, is 29 years old. six plaintiffs ordered 1,606 printers. Before retiring for the night, the first plaintiff had a further discussion with the second plaintiff on how to store the laser printers they had ordered. Voces del tesauro. 75 Each of the automated confirmatory e-mail responses carried under Availability of product the notation call to enquire. be rebutted" (per Salmon LJ in Jones v. Padavatton (1969)). 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. 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. The case involved the sale of printers by the defendant at a price of S$66. Abstract The decision of V.K. Because it was simply a matter of time before the error would inevitably be noticed and the pricing inevitably corrected. The CISG has currently been adopted by 95 Contracting States world-wide. 98 Once an offer is sent over the Internet, the sender loses control over the route and delivery time of the message. 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. There were no such discussions with potential buyers. He placed his first order for 50 units at about 2.58am, and his second order for another 50 units at 3.22am, again through the HP website. The second issue was raised by me and touched upon contentions made by both parties in their written submissions. Looking for a flexible role? Administrative Law in Common Law Countries. This is approved in a Singaporean case, Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd . 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. There is often, but not inexorably, a co-relationship between the timing when the amendment is sought and the adverse consequences for the other party. It is important not to force into a Procrustean bed principles that have to be modified or discarded when considering novel aspects of the Internet. 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. 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. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:43 coz the HP laser colour printer sells for at least 3 to 4k outside, Desmond 13/01/20 01:44 from US I heard is about USD 2k, Desmond 13/01/20 01:44 its HP and Laser and Coloured. Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] - YouTube 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. He made Internet search enquiries as to whether the printer model existed and at what price it could be resold. They are not mechanical rules to be applied in a vacuum, devoid of a contextual setting. Though he initially denied this in cross-examination, he had to accept this when confronted with his own e-mail as irrefutable evidence. *You can also browse our support articles here >. Nor should parties regard pleadings as assuming an amoeba-like nature, susceptible to constant reshaping. 1 In the early hours of the morning of 13January 2003, six friends, the plaintiffs in this case, placed orders over the Internet for 1,606 sophisticated Hewlett Packard commercial laser printers (the laser printer(s)). The other school of thought views the approach outlined earlier with considerable scepticism. 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. 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. 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. It is significant that some of the plaintiffs had never made any prior Internet purchases before that eventful morning. He claimed he wanted to find out how much profit he could make. Her evidence was inconsequential and did not assist the plaintiffs. It was held that the contract between the parties was void. An e-mail, while bearing some similarity to a postal communication, is in some aspects fundamentally different. 94 Historically, the common law has recognised an anomaly in the contractual features pertaining to a display of goods for sale. He sought to amend his affidavit and testified that if the references in his affidavit implied the acknowledgement of a mistake, they were formulated not by him but by his previous solicitors and were incorrect. 135 The defendant however asserts that there were no concluded contracts with any of the plaintiffs on a number of grounds. 43 After receiving a call from the first plaintiff at about 2.00am informing him that he had found an opportunity to make money as there was an arbitrage position to be achieved for some Hewlett Packard printers, the third plaintiff duly accessed his e-mail and visited the HP website. 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. Loose language may result in inadvertently establishing contractual liability to a much wider range of purchasers than resources permit. One of the few cases on electronic contract formation in Singapore was Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall. In terms of chronological sequence, the initial page accessed was the shopping cart, followed by checkout-order . The other knows, or must be taken to know, of his mistake. There is no doubt that the plaintiffs acted with indecent haste in the dead of the night in placing as many orders as each of them felt their financial resources credibly permitted them to do. I do not accept that there were no discussions between them on the price posting being an error. Desmond further informed the first plaintiff that the sale price of each laser printer was in the region of $3,000 to $4,000. Rather they assist in explaining how the common law has incrementally and cautiously allowed and continues to mould exceptions to the application of the objective theory of contracts. Philip Fong Yeng Fatt and Doris Chia Ming Lai (Harry Elias Partnership) for defendant, Chwee Kin Keong; Tan Wei Teck; Yeow Kinn Keong Mark; Ow Eng Hwee; Tan Chun Chuen Malcolm; Yeow Kinn Oei The E-Mail Acceptance Rule. Limit orders: order to be executed only when the desired price is available. The rules of offer and acceptance are satisfied and the parties are of one mind. (See for example the approach in, 142 The plaintiffs were bound by personal relationships as well as past and present common commercial interests.