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. In evidence he explained his conduct in the following manner: I felt that I had done all that was conceivably within my means to ensure that the Price was not a mistake. 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. 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. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:47 wasnt greedy before I tok to u. Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:47 yeah.. S$1 mio then no need to work liao?? The jurisdiction asserted in the former case has not developed. To confine this exception to instances of fraud would make the concept of unilateral mistake redundant. In such cases, it would be unconscionable to enforce the bargain and equity will set aside the contract, 26 I respectfully agree with the reasoning of ShawJ in. It would be fair to say that such a person should not have any legitimate expectation that the contract in question will be either respected or sanctioned by court. He made Internet search enquiries as to whether the printer model existed and at what price it could be resold. , In mutual mistake, the parties misunderstand each other and are at cross-purposes. 111 This approach appears to have been endorsed by Judith PrakashJ in Ho Seng Lee Construction Pte Ltd v Nian Chuan Construction Pte Ltd [2001] 4 SLR 407 at [84] where it was also accepted that: The test is an objective one based on what a reasonable person would have known in similar circumstances. The unconstrained exchange that followed between the two is both revealing and compelling. 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. 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. 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. If the common law continues to take precedence, then an essential mistake would void a contract ab initio. He is also a director and shareholder in a company engaging in wholesale trade, together with the second and third plaintiffs. 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. The rules of offer and acceptance are satisfied and the parties are of one mind. 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 notation in the checkout-order confirmation further confirmed that the defendants concern was with the delivery time rather than with qualifying its obligation by reference to stock availability as a condition precedent. Mutual promises, by all accounts, on the basis of existing case law, more than amply constitute consideration. They have taken into account both the English and Australian authorities in distilling the jurisprudence in this area. There were altogether 1,008 purchase orders for the laser printers placed by 784 individuals between 8 and 13January 2003. Thus the task of ascertaining whether the parties have reached agreement as to the terms of a contract can involve quite a complex amalgam of the objective and the subjective and involve the application of a principle that bears close comparison with the doctrine of estoppel. reference was made by the court to "fraud or a very high degree of misconduct" before the non- mistaken party could be . 152 This view has also found support in the Singapore context. The plaintiffs assert they were not aware of the defendants mistake when they placed their orders, and had believed the offer was genuine. Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR(R) 594, Rajah JC (as . Promotions would be indicated by a P inside a yellow circle next to the product in question. Case name. 38 The second plaintiff came across as intelligent and resourceful. The law of mistake has generated its own genre of mistakes and obfuscation. The sixth plaintiff told his brother to order some for him, without specifying how many laser printers he wanted or how he intended to pay for the laser printers. 75 Each of the automated confirmatory e-mail responses carried under Availability of product the notation call to enquire. They have taken into account both the English and Australian authorities in distilling the jurisprudence in this area. The plaintiffs refute that the error exonerates the defendant; they insist that a concluded contract is sacrosanct and must be honoured. There was a promise to pay made by the plaintiffs in exchange for the delivery of the requisite laser printers. Chwee Kin Keong vs Digilandmall.com - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt / .pptx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. 33 See the Singapore Court of Appeal decision of Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd[2005] 1 SLR 502 (noted by Yeo, TM ' Great Peace: a distant disturbance ' (2005) 121 Law Quarterly Review 393 Google Scholar; KFK Low 'Unilateral mistake at common law and in equity' [2005] Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 423; and PW . It would be illogical to have different approaches for different product sales over the Internet. The plaintiffs could not coherently explain why neither they nor their lawyers had not attempted to correct the press reports at the material juncture. V K Rajah JC: Para continuar leyendo. The court has to be astute and adopt a pragmatic and judicious stance in resolving such issues. The Canadian and Australian cases have moved along with the eddies of unconscionability. . As this is a critical issue, it is imperative that each of their positions be carefully evaluated. 101 The applicable rules in relation to transactions over the worldwide web appear to be clearer and less controversial. She opined that situations where unilateral mistake had been considered were those involving fraud or a very high degree of misconduct. 49 Tan Cheng Pengs brief evidence did not really assist the third plaintiff. The plaintiffs are, however, entitled to the cost of the amendments, in any event, which I fix at $1,000. 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. Failure to do so could also result in calamitous repercussions. 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" . If coherence is to be restored to this area of our law, it can only be by declaring that there is no jurisdiction to grant rescission of a contract on the ground of common mistake where that contract is valid and enforceable on ordinary principles of contract law. Disclaimer: This work was produced by one of our expert legal writers, as a learning aid to help law students with their studies. The defendant is therefore entitled to recover in full its taxed costs from the plaintiffs. The mere fact that they suddenly engage in predatory and atypical behaviour may in itself be telling. Mistakes that negative consent do not inexorably result in contracts being declared void. In New Zealand, the legislature enacted the Contractual Mistake Act 1977. But it is difficult to see how that can apply here. 105 It is not only reasonable but right that the objective appearance of a contract should not operate in favour of a party who is aware, in the eyes of the law, of the true state of affairs when, for instance, there is real misapprehension on the part of the mistaken party and when the actual reality of the situation is starkly obvious. It became apparent that the plaintiffs misplaced reliance on the extract earlier cited probably also explained their singularly odd conduct in applying for amendments, only to withdraw their application later in attempting to deny the defendant an opportunity to amend its pleadings. 30th Sep 2021 . How could one seek to calculate the profit margin before finding out the true market price of the laser printer? I even went to both the HP Web-Site as well as the DigilandMall Web-site to see if the prices were the same. He held that the Written Offer was accepted by the . The ETA is essentially permissive. Theoretically the supply of information is limitless. It appears that he was also in touch with the fifth plaintiff as evidenced by an e-mail sent later that morning by the fifth plaintiff to both him and the second plaintiff containing research on what companies who had made similar Internet errors did. Their Please refer to the PDF copy for a print-friendly version. Application of such a rule may however result in contracts being formed outside the jurisdiction if not properly drafted. It appears there were a series of sms messages between them and at least a few telephone discussions while the purchases were being effected. The first plaintiffs riposte, should such a situation come to pass, was to sue them lor. 11 The single most controversial issue in these proceedings is the knowledge possessed and/or belief entertained by each of the plaintiffs when they entered into each of the transactions for the purchase of the laser printers. It should be noted that while the common law jurisdictions continue to wrestle over this vexed issue, most civil law jurisdictions lean towards the recipient rule. Any information contained in this case summary does not constitute legal advice and should be treated as educational content only. If stock of a product has been exhausted, a prospective purchaser cannot sue for specific performance or damages as he has merely made an offer that has not been accepted by the merchant. This short but highly significant e-mail reads: Subject: IMPT HP Colour LaserJet going at only $66!! These orders were placed at a price of S$66 each, whereas the actual price was S$3,854 each. 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. 4 The defendant is a company that sells information technology (IT) related products over the Internet to consumers. This is essentially a matter of language and intention, objectively ascertained. Alternatively, knowledge may be readily inferred from what would be regarded as commonly known or notorious facts in the context of the transaction. The current general approach is correctly stated in Professor Jeffrey Pinslers Singapore Court Practice 2003 (LexisNexis, 2003) at para20/5/7: An amendment may be allowed even after both parties have made their closing submissions. 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. Lord Phillips of Worth MatraversMR observed in a withering analysis at [156], [157], [160] and [161]: 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. This has clearly caused much confusion in the common law jurisdictions. Cory had chosen this mode of communication; therefore he Others do not. 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. MrYeow said: After we ordered, the very next day, some of us have even gone up to talk to buyers in the market about the units. 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. NZULR, vol. 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. 27-30 January; 2-6, 9 February; 13 March; 12 April 2004 . (See for example the approach in, 142 The plaintiffs were bound by personal relationships as well as past and present common commercial interests. Put another way, that decision seems to indicate that the effect of a unilateral mistake is only to render a contract unenforceable rather than void. I hope by the time you see this email, the price is still at S$66.00 coz they might change it anytime. 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. Chwee Kin Keong and Others v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] SGCA 2 Civil Procedure - Costs - Principles - Respondent failing in every aspect of defence except on issue of unilateral mistake - Trial judge awarding full costs to respondent - Whether respondent entitled to full costs It is, in large measure, determined by making an objective appraisal of the exchanges between the parties. I invited both parties to indicate if they wished to amend their pleadings. The present article analyses the many important issues that are raised by what is probably the first case on Internet mistake - the Singapore High Court decision of Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR 594. There must be consensus ad idem. They are all well-educated professionals articulate, entrepreneurial and, quite bluntly, streetwise and savvy individuals. - See also Balfour v. Balfour (1919). 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. This is an area that needs to be rationalised in a coherent and structured manner. 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. 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. A particular class of case which illustrates unilateral mistake as to the terms intended, known to the other party, is that in which an offer which would be very advantageous to the offeree is snapped up by the offeree. 1.47K subscribers Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] Facts The defendant, Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd, were an online IT company that sold related software and hardware from. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:33 how many u intend to get? 68 Yeow Kinn Oei is 29 years old and the brother of the third plaintiff. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:44 if they dont honor it Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:45 sell me one lah name your price ;-) sue them lor , Desmond: 13/01/20 01:45 I think they will give vouchers or special deals. This could account for the substantial number of Canadian cases in this area of the law. The complainants had ordered over 100 printers each at this price. be rebutted" (per Salmon LJ in Jones v. Padavatton (1969)). 90 After leave was granted to amend the defence, each of the plaintiffs filed a further short affidavit refuting knowledge of the mistake relating to pricing. 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. There are in this connection two schools of thought. 5 A related website for corporate clients and re-sellers (the Digiland commerce website) is owned and operated by a related entity, Digiland International Limited (DIL). This can result from human interphasing, machine error or a combination of such factors. A prospective purchaser is entitled to rely on the terms of the web advertisement. Neither party raised any objections. 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. He claimed he wanted to find out how much profit he could make. In fact, he and the fourth plaintiff have jointly conceptualised and implemented an Internet-related business. This gives their courts a broad and elastic jurisdiction to deal with commercially inappropriate behaviour. They assumed that to be the position. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:41 u want it for profit or personal use? The programme trigger on that website automatically and instantaneously initiated the insertion of similar contents onto all three websites. There was no satisfactory reason for the genesis of this e-mail (see [67] infra). 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. This is to be contrasted with: Hare, Inequitable Mistake (2003) 62CLJ 29, Chandler et al, Common Mistake: Theoretical Justification and Remedial Inflexibility [2004] JBL 34. The second plaintiff made an enquiry as to the terms and conditions governing purchases through the HP website while the fifth plaintiff was perusing the conditions of the Digilandmall website. Following closely to the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong & Others v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR 594 as a precedent with similar context, the court would most likely try to determine if there is an existence of a contract or if an agreement has been reached in the first place, so we refer to Lord Phillips in Shogun Finance Ltd v The element of constructive knowledge based upon what a reasonable person ought to know is premised upon that person not being conscious of the error. It was only then that the defendant promptly took steps to remove all references to the laser printer from all three websites. Indeed, in difficult cases, the courts in several common law jurisdictions have gone to extraordinary lengths to conjure up consideration. This constituted more than a quarter of the total number of laser printers ordered. His communications with the fifth plaintiff, a lawyer, on the efficacy of the terms and conditions also lead to the ineluctable conclusion that he harboured anxieties whether this astoundingly good deal would be honoured when the error was discovered. 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. 114 For good measure, I should allude that the plaintiffs in their written submissions concede that in order to establish that mistake is operative at common law, the defendant has to show in this instant case that the plaintiffs each had actual or constructive knowledge of the mistaken pricing. 19 Later in the morning, at about 4.15am, the fourth plaintiff sent the following e-mail to the first plaintiff, copied to the second plaintiff only: Subject: Re: IMPT HP Colour LaserJet going at only $66!! 117 It should be emphasised that this stream of authority is consistently recognised by all the major common law jurisdictions. 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. He is currently employed as an accountant in an accounting firm, Ernst & Young. The preface I do not know in no way detracts from this; the e-mail being addressed to a large group of 54 persons, the first plaintiff would simply not have wanted to commit himself by saying I know. 138 Effectively, the defendant was attempting in this contention to assert that it could have its cake and eat it as well. The rules of offer and acceptance are satisfied and the parties are of one mind. After receiving the e-mail from the first plaintiff, he visited the relevant HP website pages. 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. 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. Not all one-sided transactions or bargains are improper. He was also a partner in what is described as a printing business. The e-mails sent at 2.34am were also captioned Go load it now! They then argue that as equitable defences have not been pleaded, the court has no alternative but to allow the claim. 148 The circumstances under which the orders were placed and the quantities sought to be purchased wholly undermine counsels variegated contentions that the plaintiffs lacked knowledge of or belief in the existence of a mistake.

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