McDONAGH Blake Properties Pty Limited v Peter Blake Investments Pty Limited & Peter Stewart Blake [2026] NSWDC 313 — Accord And Satisfaction & Limitation Of Actions — Barrister AI
McDONAGH Blake Properties Pty Limited v Peter Blake Investments Pty Limited & Peter Stewart Blake
CONTRACT — accord and satisfaction — agreement by parties for payment by instalments to Plaintiff — whether subsequent agreement partly oral and partly in writing amounts to accord and satisfaction of claim under earlier agreement for payment
LIMITATION OF ACTIONS — whether claim in contract statute barred — Limitation Act 1969 (NSW), s 54 — confirmation — whether acknowledgment in writing — authenticated signature fiction rule
CONTRACT — whether Plaintiff not entitled to payment by reason of the Property Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW), s 55 — whether Plaintiff acted as buyer’s agent for commission — whether discretion under s 55A available and should be exercised
Quick Take
1For an agreement to constitute accord and satisfaction discharging a prior cause of action, there must be a clear and unequivocal demonstration that the promisee intended to release the prior claim in consideration of the promise received; the mere exchange of contracts for sale of land at discounted prices reflecting an outstanding debt does not, without more, establish such an intention, particularly where the parties subsequently entered into replacement contracts after the first failed to complete.
2An email forwarding sales advices at negotiated reduced prices, sent in response to a proposal to resolve an outstanding debt by property transactions, can constitute a signed written acknowledgment for the purposes of s 54 of the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW), with the sender's name in the email satisfying the signature requirement under the authenticated signature fiction principle.
3Section 55A of the Property Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW) does not appear to confer power on a court to grant relief from disentitlement to commission where no written agency agreement was ever created or signed, as the section's relief provisions are directed only to failures of service or regulatory non-compliance presupposing the existence of a written agreement — though this point was not required to be finally determined.
