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“If, whatever a man’s real intention may be, he so conducts himself that a reasonable man would believe that he was assenting to the terms proposed by the other party, and that other party upon that belief enters into the contract …
The statement of law was made in the context of a contract for the sale of oats.…
The facts were as follows. The seller, a farmer, offered to sell to the buyer certain…
The parties having failed to agree, an action was filed with the County Court of…
The Queen’s Bench Division found for the seller and ordered a new trial. The trial…
Hannen J remarked on similar lines to Blackburn J, expressing that:…
“…but a belief on the part of the plaintiff that the defendant was making a contract to buy the oats, of which he offered him a sample, under a mistaken belief that they were old, would not relieve the defendant from liability unless his mistaken belief were induced by some misrepresentation of the plaintiff, or concealment by him of a fact which it became his duty to communicate.”(8)…
Smith v Hughes, and in particular Blackburn J’s stipulation as to the objective approach to construing contractual matters, has been adopted and re-applied in numerous other cases. In Rose v Pim
The trial judge permitted the rectification of the contract on the basis of the mutual…
“…when the parties to a contract are to all outward appearances in full and certain agreement, neither of them can set up his own mistake, or the mistake of both of them, so as to make the contract a nullity from the beginning. Even …
The objective approach to the construction of contracts has received the royal assent…
“Whether the parties have reached agreement on the terms is not determined by evidence of the subjective intention of each party. It is, in large measure, determined by making an objective appraisal of the exchanges between the parties. If…
Lord Hobhouse similarly remarked, in the same case, that “[W]hatever the medium of communication, a contract comes into existence if, on…
More recently, Lord Neuberger, the (then) President of the UK Supreme Court, referred…
Chitty on Contracts, a leading text, accordingly, concludes that when construing…
