Electronic Signature in UK Law

It was common ground both before the judge and before us that an electronic signature is sufficient and that a first name, initials, or perhaps a nickname will suffice. In my judgment Mr Hindley put his name, Guy, on the email so as to indicate that it came with his authority and that he took responsibility for the contents. I have no doubt that that is a sufficient authentication.

The disclosure ordered by Walker J herein has revealed that since 2005 Howe Robinson has fixed around 125 vessels on Mr Salgaocar's instructions with Trustworth as charterers. Four of those fixtures post dated the fixture in issue in the present case. Of those 43 fixtures 36 involved guarantees in the same form as in the present case namely by a single line in the charterparty.

I do not accept Mr Kimmins' submission that the characteristic performance of a warranty of authority contract is the provision of the warranty. The provision of the warranty is the promise, not the performance of it. A person who warrants his authority warrants that a state of affairs exists. The warranty is fulfilled if he has the authority which he claims to have.

Given that I have found that the claim in deceit succeeds, it is not strictly necessary to decide whether this is an appropriate case in which to pierce the corporate veil and permit a claim which should otherwise be pursued against the company to be pursued against the defendant.

Transactions are not to be regarded as occurring "in the course of" a business unless they have some degree of regularity such that they form part of the normal practice of the business. In Davies v Sumner [1984] 1 WLR 1301 a self employed courier used his car almost exclusively for his business. He sold the car falsely stating that it had done 18,000 miles when its true mileage was 118,000 miles.

As I have noted, to fall within s594, the arrangement needed to be for both the transfer of ZB shares and the allotment of Z plc shares. ii) was that the nature of the arrangement could not be set out with any coherence. It was anticipated that RSS and TSSY would transfer shares in ZB and be allotted shares in Z plc, but it was not possible to say how many of those allotted shares they held beneficially.