{"id":740,"date":"2016-03-10T10:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T08:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/?p=740"},"modified":"2016-03-10T10:06:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T08:06:28","slug":"new-age-communication-watch-what-you-agree-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/2016\/03\/10\/new-age-communication-watch-what-you-agree-to\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW AGE COMMUNICATION &#8211; WATCH WHAT YOU AGREE TO!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/email.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-741\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-741\" src=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/email.png\" alt=\"email\" width=\"288\" height=\"148\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>&#8220;The email of the species is deadlier than the mail.&#8221; (Stephen Fry)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Previous we discussed the need for a \u201cnon-variation\u201d clause in every agreement you sign, and the dangers of not having one.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now we turn to the related danger of <strong>inadvertently<\/strong> concluding, amending and\/or cancelling agreements by email or other electronic (\u201cdata\u201d) messaging.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>The car-wash contract that died in cyberspace <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Take for example the facts of a case recently before the Supreme Court of Appeal \u2013<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>The owner of car-washing units rented them out to an \u201coperating agent\u201d in terms of agreements with non-variation clauses. \u00a0Any \u201cconsensual cancellation\u201d had to be in writing and signed by both parties.<\/li>\n<li>The agent, in financial difficulty, discussed cancellation with the owner in an exchange of emails, each of which ended with the sender\u2019s typed name (mostly first names only).<\/li>\n<li>The agent, held the Court, had validly cancelled the agreements electronically by means of these emails.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Were the emails \u201cwritten\u201d? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our law is clear: \u00a0\u201cA requirement in law that a document or information must be in writing is met if the document or information is &#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the form of a data message; and<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Accessible in a manner usable for subsequent reference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Clearly the emails in this case complied and were therefore indeed \u201cwritten\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Were the emails \u201csigned\u201d? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two types of electronic signature are recognised in our law \u2013<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An \u201cadvance electronic signature\u201d, which carries a digital certificate from an accredited authority, is required where any law imposes on parties the requirement for a signature.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But where the signature requirement is not imposed by any law but is rather something agreed by the parties (as in this case, via the non-variation clauses), all that is required is an \u201cordinary\u201d electronic signature, which doesn\u2019t need to have any form of certificate. \u00a0Simply put it is just data \u201cintended by the user to serve as a signature\u201d. \u00a0 A sender\u2019s typed name at the end of an email (or other \u201cdata message\u201d) will, unless the parties have agreed on another specific type of electronic signature, suffice provided that it \u2013<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Identifies the sender,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indicates the sender\u2019s \u201capproval of the information communicated\u201d, and<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 &#8220;Was as reliable as was appropriate for the purposes for which the information was communicated\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Court found on the facts of this case that only an \u201cordinary\u201d electronic signature was required, the emails complied with the above requirements and thus were indeed \u201csigned\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Accordingly the contracts were validly cancelled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>What contracts cannot be electronic? \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Certain types of agreement\/document &#8211; most importantly property sales and wills \u2013 are specifically excluded and must be written and signed in <u>physical<\/u> form.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>The bottom line \u2013 three things to remember<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remember that in most cases agreements are binding even when they are verbal \u2013 a recipe for confusion and dispute. \u00a0First step therefore is to always insist that every contract you enter into is both written and signed, with a non-variation clause as discussed last month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That said, always be careful what you agree to, not just via email, but via any type of data message (think SMSes, What\u2019s App messages, Social Media messages and so on).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make sure that any agreement you are party to specifies \u2013<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whether electronic recordal, signature, variation and\/or cancellation will be valid and binding,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If so, specify the required format.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u00a0Source: LawDotNews &#8211; March 2015<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The email of the species is deadlier than the mail.&#8221; (Stephen Fry) Previous we discussed the need for a \u201cnon-variation\u201d clause in every agreement you sign, and the dangers of not having one. Now we turn to the related danger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":742,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}