Misrepresentation


In common law jurisdictions, a misrepresentation is a false or misleading statement of fact made during negotiations by one party to another, the statement then inducing that other party to enter into a contract. The misled party may normally rescind the contract, and sometimes may be awarded damages as well.
The law of misrepresentation is an amalgam of contract and tort; and its sources are common law, equity and statute. In England and Wales, the common law was amended by the Misrepresentation Act 1967. The general principle of misrepresentation has been adopted by the United States and other former British colonies, e.g. India.

Representation and contract terms

A "representation" is a pre-contractual statement made during negotiations. If a representation has been incorporated into the contract as a term, then the normal remedies for breach of contract apply. Factors that determine whether or not a representation has become a term include:
  • The relative expertise of the parties.
  • The reliance that one party has shown on the statement.
  • The reassurances given by the speaker.
  • The customary norms of the trade in question.
  • The representation forms the basis of a collateral contract.
Otherwise, an action may lie in misrepresentation, and perhaps in the torts of negligence and deceit also. Although a suit for breach of contract is relatively straightforward, there are advantages in bringing a parallel suit in misrepresentation, because whereas repudiation is available only for breach of condition, rescission is prima facie available for all misrepresentations, subject to the provisions of s.2 of the Misrepresentation Act 1967, and subject to the inherent limitations of an equitable remedy.

Duties of the parties

For a misrepresentation to occur, especially a negligent misrepresentation, the following elements need to be satisfied.
There is no general duty of disclosure in English contract law, and one is normally not obliged to say anything. Ordinary contracts do not require "good faith" as such, and mere compliance with the law is sufficient. However in particular relationships silence may form the basis of an actionable misrepresentation:
  • Agents have a fiduciary relationship with their principal. They must make proper disclosure and must not make secret profits.
  • Employers and employees have a bona fide duty to each other once a contract of employment has begun; but a job applicant owes no duty of disclosure in a job interview.
  • A contract uberrimae fidei is a contract of 'utmost good faith', and include contracts of insurance, business partnerships, and family agreements. When applying for insurance, the proposer must disclose all material facts for the insurer properly to assess the risk. In the UK, the duty of disclosure in insurance has been substantially amended by the Insurance Act 2015.

    The "untrue statement"

To amount to a misrepresentation, the statement must be untrue or seriously misleading. A statement that is "technically true" but that gives a misleading impression is deemed an "untrue statement". If a misstatement is made and later the representor finds that it is false, it becomes fraudulent unless the representer updates the other party. If the statement is true at the time, but becomes untrue due to a change in circumstances, the representor must update the original statement. Actionable misrepresentations must be misstatements of fact or law: misstatements of opinion or intention are not deemed statements of fact; but if one party appears to have specialist knowledge of the topic, his "opinions" may be considered actionable misstatements of fact. For example, false statements made by a seller regarding the quality or nature of the property that the seller has may constitute misrepresentation.
  • Statements of opinion
Statements of opinion are usually insufficient to amount to a misrepresentation as it would be unreasonable to treat personal opinions as "facts", as in Bisset v Wilkinson.
Exceptions can arise when opinions may be treated as "facts":
- when an opinion is expressed yet this opinion is not actually held by the representor,
- when it is implied that the representor has facts on which to base the opinion,
- when one party should have known facts on which such an opinion would be based.
  • Statements of intention
Statements of intention do not constitute misrepresentations should they fail to come to fruition, since the time the statements were made they can not be deemed either true or false. However, an action can be brought if the intention never actually existed, as in Edgington v Fitzmaurice.
  • Statements of law
For many years, statements of law were deemed incapable of amounting to misrepresentations because the law is "equally accessible by both parties" and is "...as much the business of the plaintiff as of to know what the law .". This view has changed, and it is now accepted that statements of law may be treated as akin to statements of fact. As stated by Lord Denning "...the distinction between law and fact is illusory".
  • Statement to the misled
An action in misrepresentation can only be brought by the misled party, or "representee". This means that only those who were an intended recipient of the representation may sue, as in Peek v Gurney, where the plaintiff sued the directors of a company for indemnity. The action failed because it was found that the plaintiff was not a representee and accordingly misrepresentation could not be a protection.
It is not necessary for the representation to have been be received directly; it is sufficient that the representation was made to another party with the intention that it would become known to a subsequent party and ultimately acted upon by them. However, it IS essential that the untruth originates from the defendant.

Inducement

The misled party must show that he relied on the misstatement and was induced into the contract by it.
In Attwood v Small, the seller, Small, made false claims about the capabilities of his mines and steelworks. The buyer, Attwood, said he would verify the claims before he bought, and he employed agents who declared that Small's claims were true. The House of Lords held that Attwood could not rescind the contract, as he did not rely on Small but instead relied on his agents. Edgington v Fitzmaurice confirmed further that a misrepresentation need not be the sole cause of entering a contract, for a remedy to be available, so long as it is an influence.
A party induced by a misrepresentation is not obliged to check its veracity. In Redgrave v Hurd Redgrave, an elderly solicitor told Hurd, a potential buyer, that the practice earned £300 pa. Redgrave said Hurd could inspect the accounts to check the claim, but Hurd did not do so. Later, having signed a contract to join Redgrave as a partner, Hurd discovered the practice generated only £200 pa, and the accounts verified this figure. Lord Jessel MR held that the contract could be rescinded for misrepresentation, because Redgrave had made a misrepresentation, adding that Hurd was entitled to rely on the £300 statement.
By contrast, in Leaf v International Galleries, where a gallery sold painting after wrongly saying it was a Constable, Lord Denning held that while there was neither breach of contract nor operative mistake, there was a misrepresentation; but, five years having passed, the buyer's right to rescind had lapsed. This suggests that, having relied on a misrepresentation, the misled party has the onus to discover the truth "within a reasonable time". In Doyle v Olby , a party misled by a fraudulent misrepresentation was deemed NOT to have affirmed even after more than a year.

Types of misrepresentation

Australian law

Within trade and commerce, the law regarding misrepresentation is dealt with by the Australian Consumer Law, under Section 18 and 29 of this code, the ACL calls contractual misrepresentations as "misleading and deceptive conduct" and imposes a prohibition. The ACL provides for remedies, such as damages, injunctions, rescission of the contract, and other measures.

English law

In England, the common law was codified and amended by the Misrepresentation Act 1967..
Prior to the Misrepresentation Act 1967, the common law deemed that there were two categories of misrepresentation: fraudulent and innocent. The effect of the act is primarily to create a new category by dividing innocent misrepresentation into two separate categories: negligent and "wholly" innocent; and it goes on to state the remedies in respect of each of the three categories. The point of the three categories is that the law recognises that the defendant may have been blameworthy to a greater or lesser extent; and the relative degrees of blameworthiness lead to differing remedies for the claimant.
Once misrepresentation has been proven, it is presumed to be "negligent misrepresentation", the default category. It then falls to the claimant to prove that the defendant's culpability was more serious and that the misrepresentation was fraudulent. Conversely, the defendant may try to show that his misrepresentation was innocent.
  • Negligent misrepresentation is simply the default category.
  • Fraudulent misrepresentation is defined in the 3-part test in Derry v Peek whereby a defendant is fraudulent if he:
  • Innocent misrepresentation is "belief on reasonable grounds up till the time of the contract that the facts represented are true"..