The Court held that the defendants were bound by the terms of a draft deed of settlement sent by their solicitor to the plaintiffs' solicitor, notwithstanding that the defendants never executed the deed. Applying the objective intention test from Masters v Cameron and Sully v Englisch, the Court found that a reasonable observer would have concluded the parties intended to be bound at the time the plaintiffs returned the executed deed, having regard to the course of negotiations, the defendants' solicitor's communication that the deed reflected the defendants' final position, and the absence of any explicit reservation that binding effect was contingent on execution. The mediation agreement's requirement for a signed written settlement was held not to govern the post-mediation negotiations, particularly as two of the plaintiffs were not parties to the mediation agreement.
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