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casetreasury

Raffles v Wichelhaus (1864) 2 H & C 906

Facts: The parties made an agreement to buy and sell cotton from a ship called ‘Peerless’ which was departing from Bombay. The parties thought they were talking about the same ship, but they were each referring to different ships (there were two ships named ‘Peerless’ that were departing from Bombay – one in October, the other in December). When the cotton arrived on the December ship, the Purchaser refused to accept it, arguing that his intention was to buy cotton arriving on the October ship.


Held: It was not possible to identify an objective agreement. The effect of this is that the contract is void. The ratio is hard to identify in this case as no reasons were provided by the Court. The judges could have reached this conclusion through an issue of certainty (in regard to the term about the ship), making the contract void.

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