chwee kin keong v digilandmall high courtfunny texts to get her attention
The most recent and authoritative pronouncement in this area (. He appeared distinctly uncomfortable during several phases of his cross-examination and his answers on crucial points were evasive and often vague.. His evidence in relation to the level and nature of communications he had with the second and third plaintiffs on the morning in question lacked candour. I am not prepared, after full consideration, to assume that the reporters misquoted the facts. I cannot accept that. Added to his own purchases of 760 units, he was effectively responsible for the purchase of 1,090 laser printers. The e-mails had all the characteristics of an unequivocal acceptance. Scorpio: 13/01/20 01:24 huh?? 107 As the law now stands, mistakes that are not fundamental or which do not relate to an essential term do not vitiate consent. One of the few cases on electronic contract formation in Singapore was Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall. The quintessential approach of the law is to, 106 In the Singapore context, the first port of call when confronted with issues of contract law is inevitably Professor Andrew Phangs treatise on. There were no such discussions with potential buyers. In Canada, the latter suffices. Case name. 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. I note that Chitty at para5-089, fn25 sagely opines that Taylor v Johnson does not represent English law, at least, where the other party knows that a mistake has been made. 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. However, not all principles will or can apply in the same manner that they apply to traditional paper-based and oral contracts. Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd [1947] KB 130 Chapelton v Barry UDC [1940] 1 KB 532 Chaplin v Hicks [1911] 2 KB 786 Chappell v Nestl [1960] AC 87 Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com [2006] 1 LRC 37 CIBC Mortgages v Pitt [1994] 1 AC 200 - Undue . He is currently self-employed and is intimately involved in the multi-level marketing sales of aromatherapy products under the Bel-Air label. 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. The first plaintiffs purchase took place soon after the ICQ conversation with Desmond where Desmond had in no uncertain terms pitched the price of the laser printer between $3,000 to $4,000. Limit orders: order to be executed only when the desired price is available. The contract was held to be void because there was no consensus on the terms. 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. This is a disingenuous contention that desperately attempts to palliate their conduct in the subject transactions. The essence is not so much in the nature of the amendment but rather in the consequences flowing from any amendment to the pleadings. June Proctor, 1997, p. 13. Rajah J.C. in the Singapore High Court in Chwee Kin Keong v. Digilandmall.com Pte. They assumed that to be the position. After the second plaintiff read out some of the terms and conditions he had found, the fifth plaintiff told him that the contract was binding upon a successful purchase order being received. Articles 11 (1) Country Singapore. 2 [2004] 2 SLR 594 ("the Digilandmall case") (The decision was very recently affirmed by the Singapore Court of Appeal in Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd [2005] SGCA 2, albeit on somewhat different grounds and where the focus was on the law of unilateral mistake rather than formation of contract.)]. Any reasonable person, given the extent of the knowledge and information the plaintiffs were armed with, would have come to a similar conclusion. It is, in large measure, determined by making an objective appraisal of the exchanges between the parties. With reference to the judgement, the case explores pricing mistakes by online stores. 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. His credibility on the material points was dubious, at best. The E-Mail Acceptance Rule. It is germane to observe that none of the cases purporting to follow Solle v Butcher [1950] 1 KB 671 have with any degree of clarity defined the parameters of equitable mistake in contradistinction to a common law mistake. (See for example the approach in Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd [1990] 1AllER 512.) He appeared distinctly uncomfortable during several phases of his cross-examination and his answers on crucial points were evasive and often vague.. His evidence in relation to the level and nature of communications he had with the second and third plaintiffs on the morning in question lacked candour. After all, what would he do with 100 obsolete commercial laser printers? The web merchant, unless he qualifies his offer appropriately, by making it subject to the availability of stock or some other condition precedent, could be seen as making an offer to sell an infinite supply of goods. It was only then that the defendant promptly took steps to remove all references to the laser printer from all three websites. [emphasis added]. *You can also browse our support articles here >. Computer glitches can cause transmission failures, garbled information or even change the nature of the information transmitted. This is an online dating and match-making service. Given his professional and business background, he must have realised that the $66 price posting on the HP website was an error. 73 The sixth plaintiffs orders did not receive matching confirmations from the defendant as his e-mail box was full. In effect the Internet conveniently integrates into a single screen traditional advertising, catalogues, shop displays/windows and physical shopping. 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. Alternatively, knowledge may be readily inferred from what would be regarded as commonly known or notorious facts in the context of the transaction. Despite their familial relationship, the legal relationship between the two of them was that of agent and principal. He claims visiting, 62 Like the second plaintiff, the fifth plaintiff played a pivotal role in the events leading to these proceedings. The modern approach in contract law requires very little to find the existence of consideration. 80 Upon the conclusion of submissions, I directed counsel to appear before me. The goods are not on offer but are said to be an invitation to treat. It was held that the contract between the parties was void. 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, 52 He then called the second plaintiff on his handphone and informed him that he intended to purchase 50 laser printers. 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. 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. Basic principles of contract law continue to prevail in contracts made on the Internet. 153 These statements of jurisprudence are of cardinal importance in understanding and fashioning the law of contract. 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 . They even discussed the possible scenario of the defendant not honouring the transactions. [emphasis added]. . (c) the need to reach commercially sensible solutions while respecting traditional principles applicable to instances of genuine error or mistake. I found his entire evidence relating to his communication with the first and other plaintiffs unsatisfactory and in many aspects incredulous. The decision of V.K. These statements are not to be interpreted as a clarion call to rewrite commercial agreements because of a partys unreasonable or ignoble behaviour. But it is difficult to see how that can apply here. The text of the e-mail further reinforces the point. It is not in dispute that the defendant made a genuine error. Has an agreement been reached or not? Neither party raised any objections. 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. The defendant, on the other hand, contends that the law should not penalise a party who has unwittingly and genuinely made a unilateral mistake which was known or ought to have been known by the plaintiffs. 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. The unusual product description of 55 which the fourth plaintiff alone reluctantly acknowledged as weird and unusual would have been a red light signal that an error had occurred. Desmond: 13/01/20 01:41 u want it for profit or personal use? The defendant programmed the software. Upon accessing the Digilandmall website and confirming that the printer was offered there at $66 as well, he placed a further order for 25 laser printers through that website at about 3.29am. 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 . Merchants may find their contracts formed in foreign jurisdictions and therefore subject to foreign laws. This provision acknowledges that the essential framework of an electronic contract needs to be considered in the usual manner; in other words, principles of contract formation, consideration, terms and conditions, choice of law and jurisdictional issues need to be examined. In addition to the law of (especially, unilateral) mistake, issues relating to the formation of a contract will be considered (including the law relating to offer and . Chwee Kin Keong vs Digilandmall.com - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt / .pptx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. 120 The widening of jurisdiction to embrace a broad equitable jurisdiction could well encourage litigious behaviour and promote uncertainty. He claimed he wanted to find out how much profit he could make. He then zealously sent at about 2.58am, an e-mail to 54 persons, all of whom were friends and/or business associates. His evidence pertaining to the material points of knowledge and his communications with the other plaintiffs lacked credibility. Because it was simply a matter of time before the error would inevitably be noticed and the pricing inevitably corrected. There are in this connection two schools of thought. Homestead Assets Sdn Bhd v. Contramec . But that, surely, is a question as to where the common law should draw the line; not whether, given the common law rule, it needs to be mitigated by application of some other doctrine. 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, a fortiori in the sale of information and probably services, as the same constraints as to availability and supply may not usually apply to such sales. 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. Court Judgement 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 Skip to document Ask an Expert Sign inRegister Sign inRegister Home Ask an ExpertNew My Library Discovery Institutions London School of Business and Finance SAA Global Education 92 The Electronics Transaction Act (Cap88, 1999Rev Ed) (ETA) places Internet contractual dealings on a firmer footing. I reject this. The sender will usually receive a prompt response. 156 The plaintiffs claims are dismissed. This could account for the substantial number of Canadian cases in this area of the law. This contention is wholly untenable. 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. This rationalised the law and gives the court a broad discretion to fashion the applicable relief. This short but highly significant e-mail reads: Subject: IMPT HP Colour LaserJet going at only $66!! 122 For now it appears that a mistaken party can have two bites at the cherry. 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. Looking for a flexible role? 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. This constituted more than a quarter of the total number of laser printers ordered. This was also the practice in the trade. In his initial affidavit he admitted wondering whether the price was a mistake after his first order was placed. They were clearly anxious to place their orders before the defendant took steps to correct the error. From time to time they communicate with each other via the Internet and the short messaging system (sms). When the defendants discovered this mistake on their website, they sent an email to the complainants to say they would not be fulfilling this order. This is one of the first prominent case that deals with the issue of web based contract. The reach of and potential response(s) to such an advertisement are however radically different. While they did not invariably admit that their searches were made prior to each of the respective transactions, it was plain that they did not tell the whole truth about what they knew, how they knew it and when they knew it. 154 Interestingly, of the 784 persons who placed 1,008 orders for 4,086 laser printers, only these six plaintiffs have attempted to enforce their purported contractual rights. They stoutly assert that they were too preoccupied with the realisation of potential profits through a so-called arbitrage position between different markets to contemplate that an error had been made. It stands to reason that if a party shuts its eyes to the obvious, the party is being neither honest nor reasonable, and ought to be affixed with knowledge. When pressed why he asked MsToh to do this research, the fifth plaintiffs response was unsatisfactory. As this is a critical issue, it is imperative that each of their positions be carefully evaluated. His own counsels description of him as careful and prudent only serves to corroborate this. (See for example the approach in, 142 The plaintiffs were bound by personal relationships as well as past and present common commercial interests. 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. The knowledge that the offer is not meant according to its literal terms simply displaces the objective theory of contract. There is therefore no pre-condition in law for a mistaken party to show an absence of carelessness to avail himself of this defence; the law precludes a person from seeking to gain an advantage improperly in such circumstances. Someone referred me to the HP website which shows the price of this HP Colour LaserJet 4600 Series as S$66.00. 117 It should be emphasised that this stream of authority is consistently recognised by all the major common law jurisdictions. Secondly, widening the scope of mistake, unilateral or otherwise, under the rubric of equitable mistake will, with its malleability, only encourage uncertainty and litigation. 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. 66 The fifth plaintiff also gave evidence that the next morning, when he logged on his computer, he noted that a Hong Kong lawyer friend, Coral Toh, was also logged onto her computer. The amounts ordered and the hurried and hasty manner in which the orders were executed are of cardinal importance. 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. It was listed at the price of $66, when it was advertised on the official HP website for $3,854. Reference this 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. Article24 of the Convention states: For the purposes of this Part of the Convention, an offer, declaration of acceptance or any other indication of intention reaches the addressee when it is made orally to him or delivered by any other means to him personally, to his place of business or mailing address or, if he does not have a place of business or mailing address, to his habitual residence. I accept that this is capable of including circumstances in which a person refrains from or simply fails to make enquiries for which the situation reasonably calls and which would have led to discovery of the mistake. hahaha means S$132, Desmond 13/01/20 01:43 even $500 is a steal. 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. It is asserted that since mistake had not been pleaded as an equitable defence, equity cannot be invoked by the defendant. Date of Verdicts: 12 April 2004, 13 January 2005. 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. The defendant is therefore entitled to recover in full its taxed costs from the plaintiffs. 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. Their conduct in pursuing their claims cannot by any stretch of the imagination be characterised as having the slightest colour of being legitimate regardless of whether the subjective or objective theories are applied and whether common law or equity is applied in adjudicating this matter. He seemed to suggest that in a number of cases going as far back as Cundy v Lindsay (1878) 3App Cas 459, the contracts in issue therein should be treated as only being voidable in equity: see Solle v Butcher at 692, Lewis v Averay [1972] 1 QB 198 at 207 and dicta in Magee v Pennine Insurance Co Ltd [1969] 2 QB 507 at 514 where he opined that: A common mistake, even on a most fundamental matter, does not make a contract void at law: but it makes it voidable in equity. In Chwee Kin Keong v . 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. Ltd.1 has the makings of a student's classic for several reasons: it presents a textbook . They have a common interest in bridge and this helped to cement their friendship. To that extent, his evidence that he subsequently dismissed the notion altogether is unacceptable. In the Singapore context a similar approach has been adopted by the Court of Appeal in, 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. He held that the Written Offer was accepted by the . 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. The programme trigger on that website automatically and instantaneously initiated the insertion of similar contents onto all three websites. 29 The first plaintiff struck me as an opportunistic entrepreneur. The CISG has currently been adopted by 95 Contracting States world-wide. 81 Plaintiffs counsel thereafter responded somewhat curiously. 78 In a Channel NewsAsia report datelined 15January 2003, it was reported that: Two of the customers, Mark Yeow and Malcolm Tan, have already spoken to their lawyers.
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