(Barbados) The parties entered into an oral agreement for the sale of land to the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s solicitor then wrote to the defendant’s solicitor confirming the oral agreement and setting out its terms. He enclosed a cheque for 10 percent of the agreed price describing it as a deposit which he directed should be held by the defendant’s solicitor as stakeholder pending completion of the contract of sale. The defendant’s solicitor signed and sent a receipt which stated that he had received the money as deposit for the property ‘agreed to be sold’ by the defendant to the plaintiff. The Board was asked whether the letter enclosing the deposit together with the receipt for the deposit constituted sufficient memorandum for the purposes of the Statute of Frauds given that no written contract was signed by the parties.
Held: Signature by an agent, for example one party’s solicitor will bind that party if the agent has authority to sign.
Judges:
Scarman, Simon of Glaisdale, Bridge of Harwich, Brandon of Oakbrook LL
Citations:
[1983] 1 AC 646, [1982] 3 All ER 801, [1982] 3 WLR 956, [1983-84] ANZ Conv R 104, [1982] UKPC 31
Links:
Citing:
Approved – Stokes v Whicher 1920
Russell J said: ‘if you can spell out of the document a reference in it to some other transaction, you are at liberty to give evidence as to what that other transaction is, and, if that other transaction contains all the terms and writing, then you . .
Approved – Timmins v Moreland Street Property Co Ltd CA 1958
The Court considered the effect of a note or memorandum evidencing the sale of a property where it was described as ‘6,8 and 41, Boundary Street, Shoreditch (freehold).’ It was sought to connect the signature on a purchaser’s deposit cheque with an . .
Cited by:
Cited – Golden Ocean Group Ltd v Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd and Another ComC 21-Jan-2011
The defendants sought to set aside orders allowing the claimants to serve proceedings alleging repudiation of a charterparty in turn allowing a claim against the defendants under a guarantee. The defendant said the guarantee was unenforceable under . .
Mentioned – Golden Ocean Group Ltd v Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd and Another CA 9-Mar-2012
The court was asked ‘whether a contract of guarantee is enforceable where contained not in a single document signed by the guarantor but in a series of documents duly authenticated by the signature of the guarantor. It is common in commercial . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, Land
Updated: 03 September 2022; Ref: scu.430061
