J Spurling Ltd v Bradshaw

Ratio Decidendi

Facts

Bradshaw delivered barrels of orange juice to Spurling for storage. Days later he received a 'landing account' document with conditions on the back, including a wide exclusion clause. The barrels were empty when collected.

Judgment Summary

The Court of Appeal held that the exclusion clause in the 'landing account' was incorporated into the contract, because the parties had dealt with each other on the same terms on previous occasions, so a consistent course of dealing brought the conditions into this contract even though the document itself arrived after the goods were deposited. On that basis the storers could rely on the clause. The case is remembered chiefly for Denning LJ's celebrated dictum on notice of onerous terms: the more unreasonable a clause, the greater the notice required, and 'some clauses which I have seen would need to be printed in red ink on the face of the document with a red hand pointing to it before the notice could be held to be sufficient'. That 'red hand' image became the foundation of the modern rule, developed in Interfoto v Stiletto, that particularly onerous or unusual clauses require specific, fair notice to be incorporated.

Key Quotes

Subsequent Treatment