A recent decision I came across reminded me that while sometimes
the law is complex, sometimes it only sounds complex but is really
just common sense. In Justice Gray’s decision in
Bhuvanendra v. Sivapathasundram et al, 2014 ONSC 278,
one defendant successfully relied upon a defence described in Latin
that can be described much more simply as don’t try to
enforce a contract against someone who signed it in the middle of
period of sleep.
In this case, the plaintiff loaned approximately $57,000 to some
friends in 1998. About four years later, the plaintiff
decided to document the loan and asked his friends to sign a
promissory note. The plaintiff also wanted his friends’
18 year old daughter to sign the promissory note. The
daughter was described by the trial judge as “obviously very
intelligent”, with three university degrees including a
Master of Law degree by the time of the trial.
