New South Wales – an election to terminate must generally occur within a reasonable time of the discovery of the circumstances giving rise to the right. If the lessee of a flat, on learning of the lessor’s breach, communicated to the lessor that he or she desired to consider his or her position, and in the meantime continued to occupy the flat and ride up and down in the lift, the lessee may not be found to have affirmed the contract (at least until a reasonable time had passed) even though the right to occupy and ride arose only by virtue of the lease.
Glass JA said: ‘To impose the further requirement that the donee [of a legal right] must be actuated by a legitimate purpose, thus forcing a judicial trek through the quagmire of mixed motives would be, in my opinion, a dangerous and needless innovation.’
Judges:
Mahoney JA, Street CJ
Citations:
[1977] 2 NSWLR 264
Jurisdiction:
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Dhir v Saddler QBD 6-Dec-2017
Slander damages reduced for conduct
Claim in slander. The defendant was said, at a church meeting to have accused the client of threatening to slit her throat. The defendant argued that the audience of 80 was not large enough.
Held: ‘the authorities demonstrate that it is the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.602120