CF Asset Finance Ltd v Okonji
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE PATTEN
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal dealt with an appeal by Mrs. Okonji and Mr. Siaw against a judgment in favour of CF Asset Finance Limited (CFAF). The dispute involved a hire agreement created by the misuse of blank documents signed by Mrs. Okonji. The court allowed the appeal on the basis that the offer was effectively revoked before acceptance. The defence of non est factum was rejected as Mrs. Okonji was found negligent in signing the blank hire documents.
Judgment
Lord Justice Patten :
This is an appeal by the first and second defendants, Mrs Okonji and Mr Siaw, against an order of His Honour Judge Bailey dated 18 April 2013 giving judgment against them in favour of the claimant in the sum of £24,910 plus interest.
The appellants are the two partners in a firm of solicitors, Forest Solicitors, who practise in south-west London. The claimant, CF Asset Finance Limited (“CFAF”), as its name suggests, is a finance company which, through an associate company (CF Capital (“CFC”)), provided the finance for some office equipment which was supplied by the third defendant, Ishirosoft Limited (“Ishirosoft”). The equipment in question comprised an IBM server, three ACER workstations, a Xerox Work Centre multifunction and various software packages. The benefit of the claim has been validly assigned to CFAF by CFC.
The contractual arrangements between the parties pleaded in the particulars of claim are entirely conventional. Ishirosoft sold the equipment to CFC on 9 November 2006 after the appellants had entered into a contract with CFC to hire the equipment from them. By March 2007 the hire agreement was in arrears and was terminated by CFC by a written notice dated 16 March 2007. The sum then due under clause 3.02 of the agreement was £23,065.13. CFC then assigned its right under the agreement to CFAF and notice of the assignment was given to the appellants on 8 August 2007.
The appellants’ defence to the claim was that no contract had ever come into existence between themselves and CFC. Mrs Okonji, who was the person who was involved in the matter, gave evidence that in September 2006 she entered into a leasing agreement with Ishirosoft in respect of some telephone equipment. This brought her into contact with one of Ishirosoft’s salesmen, a Mr Roland Ojo. As part of this transaction details were provided to Ishirosoft and Mr Ojo of the firm’s bank account and sort code. This was followed on 25 October 2006 by the purchase from Ishirosoft of some conveyancing software which was later installed by Mr Ojo in the appellants’ offices on 1 November.
The judge found that on 25 October discussions took place about the other possible requirements of the firm for computer and office equipment. Mr Ojo, who had an eye to further business, said that he would supply any such equipment on hire terms but Mrs Okonji told him that she would prefer to buy it outright rather than entering into a hire or loan agreement. There were