[cinbun8]

Found the filing: https://www.canlii.org/en/sk/skkb/doc/2023/2023skkb116/2023s...

It's pretty funny. The thumbs up was accepted by the court as an electronic signature.

---------------------

MR. JORDAAN: Objection. My client is not an expert in emojis.

MR. MARSCHAL: Okay.

Q.MR. MARSCHAL:But he does send emojis, correct?

A.Yes.

---------------------

[subroutine]

Previous contracts delivered without issue...

5. On July 14, 2020, after discussing and agreeing on a contract with Chris Achter, I prepared a contract for the sale of 185 metric tons of durum wheat from Achter Ltd. to SWT for $312 per ton. I signed the contract and then took a photo of it using my cell phone and sent it to Chris. I messaged: “Please confirm terms of contract.” Chris texted me back: “Looks good”. Achter Ltd. delivered on this contract without issue. (Exhibit “B”)

6. On September 11, 2020, after discussing and agreeing on a contract with Chris, I prepared a contract for the sale of 131 metric tons of wheat from Achter Ltd. to SWT for a price of $284 per ton. I signed the contract and then took a photo of it using my cell phone and sent it to Chris. I messaged: “Please confirm terms of durum contract”. Chris texted me back: “Ok”. Achter Ltd. delivered on this contract without issue (Exhibit “C”).

7. On October 21, 2020, after discussing and agreeing on a contract with Chris, I prepared a contract for the sale of 395 metric tons of durum wheat from Achter Ltd. to SWT for a price of $308 per ton. I signed the contract and then took a photo of it using my cell phone and sent it to Chris. I messaged: “Please confirm terms of durum contract”. Chris texted me back: “Yup”. Achter Ltd. delivered on this contract without issue. (Exhibit “D”). ‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‎

The flax contract...

10. I then called Chris about the potential flax contract. I said “I assume you talked to Bob about this” and Chris confirmed that he had spoken to Bob and wanted to enter into a flax contract for 87 metric tons of flax at $669 per ton. I told Chris I'd send the contract by text message and ask him to confirm he contract via text when it came through, which Chris agreed to do.

11. I then wrote up the contract for a purchase of 87 metric tons of flax for $669 per ton. I signed the contract, took a photo of it and texted it to Chris. I messaged: “Please confirm flax contract”. Chris tested back a thumbs up emoji. I understood this to be that Chris was agreeing to the contract. A copy of the contract and the text message is attached as Exhibit “E”.

[defrost]

Another context here is a few centuries of past and current Anglo-sphere (UK, Canada, Australia) farming contracts and sales in general.

Stock, grain, feed, etc has been routinely traded in yards, auctions, annual shows in large units ( a years worth of lambs, feed for six months ) on the basis of a price and amount agreed upon with terse affirmatives.

A nod, a handshake, a yep, a thumbs up have all been used to seal similar scale transactions in agriculture since formal law came into being making it a solid part of common law.

[titanomachy]

TIL I am getting fleeced whenever I buy whole grains at the grocery store. I should just buy a metric ton of wheat for a couple hundred dollars and be set for life.

[ecshafer]

I know an onion farmer. They grow a lot of onions. When they sell the onions at wholesale prices it’s like cents a pound, much much cheaper than a grocery store. If you bought $5 of onions you’d have trouble fitting that in your car.

[local_crmdgeon]

Weevils

[hyperthesis]

Context: they already had a verbal deal on the phone, then the buyer sent the terms by phone, and the farmer texted back a thumbs-up. They'd done similar, three times before, and he'd texted back "looks good", "ok" and "yup" - and subsequently delivered and got paid.

Background: market price went from $17 to $41 per bushel; the farmer didn't have it on hand; a crop failure possibility was later mentioned. [Maybe why the price increased?]

Note: the thumbs-up is just for assent - the parties still need to agree on terms etc (as they did here). In fact, the farmer argued that the flax contract differed from their previous durum contracts, because he didn't have it on hand, and usually required an "act of god" clause to cover crop failure - but crucially, the buyer didn't know this, so objectively, it would seem the same.

BTW: It's not binding: there's two higher courts in Canada. But the judge refutes the technical legal objections to this form of assent.

[rlpb]

Ah, so "I am not an expert in English" must be sufficient to get out of contracts!

[bawolff]

I mean, if you literally dont understand what you are signing it probably would be (ianal)

[OJFord]

Only if the counterparty couldn't reasonably have expected you to understand what was happening, i.e. they didn't know you didn't understand English. Also NAL, but saw a (an English) case recently for wrongful termination where a Polish baker was dismissed after written warnings the employer knew he couldn't read/understand. (Baker awarded damages.)

[xg15]

Who exactly is an "expert on emojis" then? Anthropology majors and Unicode nerds?

[detourdog]

I was deep into the study of emoticons. When emojis showed up and I didn't have the energy to change my taxonomy.

[peddling-brink]

Millennials and Zoomers.

[operator-name]

> This has led the parties to a far flung search for the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone in cases from Israel, New York State and some tribunals in Canada, etc. to unearth what a emoji means.