Description

This seminar will explore the interaction between the processes by which statements of intention are construed or terms are implied. The vehicle for the exploration will be the decision in Devani v Wells, in which the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom held that the processes led to the same conclusion in relation to an alleged oral contract to pay commission to an estate agent. ‘Construction’ was used to deduce agreement to an essential term from a conversation during which the parties remained silent on the matter. The same term was then implied on a factual basis. It will be suggested that this reasoning is unconvincing on both issues. Given the Court’s reasoning, it should have concluded that the essential term omitted during the conversation was a term implied in law.

This seminar is based on a paper which Dr Eldridge co-authored with Professors John Carter and Elisabeth Peden which was published in 2021 in the Journal of Contract Law.