Remedies for Misrepresentation: Up in the Air Again

Extract

The Misrepresentation Act 1967, with its three brief sections, illustrates perfectly that, where statutory drafting is concerned, short is not necessarily sweet. Section 2 is particularly troublesome, containing both the puzzling “fiction of fraud” in subsection (1) whereby misrepresentations are to be treated as if they were fraudulent (unless the misrepresentor can show he had reasonable grounds to believe their truth), as well as the discretion in subsection (2) to award damages “in lieu of rescission” for non-fraudulent misrepresentations. Much judicial ink has been spilled construing these provisions, and in Government of Zanzibar v. British Aerospace (Lancaster House) Ltd. [2000] 1 W.L.R. 2333 section 2 (2) was again under scrutiny.