Co-operatives Act 2009

This section applies to a document, including a deed, required or permitted to be signed by a person under this Act.

If the method of signing satisfies subsection (3), a person may sign the document —

by signing a physical form of the document by hand; or

by signing an electronic form of the document using electronic means.

A method of signing satisfies this subsection if —

the method identifies the person and indicates the person’s intention in respect of the information recorded in the document; and

the method was either —

as reliable as appropriate for the purpose for which the information was recorded, in light of all the circumstances, including any relevant agreement; or

proven in fact to have fulfilled the functions described in paragraph (a), by itself or together with further evidence.

In subsection (3) —

whether formal or informal or partly formal and partly informal; and

whether written or oral or partly written and partly oral; and

whether or not having legal or equitable force and whether or not based on legal or equitable rights.

For the purposes of subsection (3)(a), the person is not required to indicate an intention in relation to —

any material identifying another person signing the document or indicating another person’s intention in respect of the information recorded; or

the signature of another person signing the document; or

if a common seal is fixed to the document — the seal; or

any immaterial information in a form of the document generated for the purposes of signing and which arises in the normal course of communication, storage or display.

This section does not require —

a person to sign the same form of the document as another person; or

a person to sign the same page of the document as another person; or

a person to use the same method to sign the document as another person; or

all the information recorded in the document to be included in the form of the document signed by a person as referred to in subsection (2)(a) or (b).

For the purposes of this section, a person who is to sign a document in more than 1 capacity —

is treated as a different person in each such capacity they sign the document; and

may sign the document in some or all of those capacities by signing the document once, if the document —

requires or permits the person to do so; and

states the capacities in which the person is signing the document.

This section does not limit the ways in which a person may sign a document.

This section does not limit the Electronic Transactions Act 2011.