In a recent case the High Court had to determine whether guarantees and warranties in the form of deeds had been delivered by individuals. It was common ground that the individuals had signed the deeds, their signatures had been witnessed and the deeds handed to the other side, but the individuals contended that they had signed as a gesture of good faith, expecting, in the light of discussions at the time of signature, that clean versions incorporating their manuscript notations would be produced and versions in those revised forms would be signed afresh.
The court held, on the facts, that none of the guarantees or the warranties in question was intended to be delivered, in the technical sense, when handed to the other side after signature. For a document to be enforceable as a deed, it had to be delivered as a deed. It was critical that the person who had signed the deed had separately indicated that he intended to be bound by the deed. Mere signature was not enough. Nor was it enough that what looked like a deed had been given to the person who appeared to be the beneficiary of it – the issue was not whether the document had been physically handed over to the beneficiary, but whether the person whose deed it was supposed to be intended to be bound by it. It followed that neither individual was bound by his guarantee or his warranty.
