Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The short answer to that question is 'No'. This is a common question and a frequent mis-
understanding. People who ask this question are probably thinking of something called 'a
course of dealing'. As the name implies, a course of dealing does not involve just one pre-
vious occasion on which the parties have contracted together. Where parties have dealt with
each other using the same terms in a substantial number of previous contracts of a partic-
ular type and they enter into another agreement about the same kind of things but omit to
include reference to the terms, the previously agreed terms may be incorporated into their
latest agreement.
3
Despitethecommonlyheldview,thesituationisquiteuncommon,andthecourtswillnot
hold that there is a course of dealing unless all the evidence points to that conclusion. For
example,thecourtsmayholdthatthereisacourseofdealingifacontractorhasboughtsup-
plies of a certain type of brick from the same supplier over the course of a few years and
if there have been a dozen similar transactions always using the same terms and conditions,
but both parties failed to complete the necessary paperwork on the last occasion. However,
a party is not entitled to rely on a contract used on only two or three previous occasions as
governing the parties in a subsequent transaction.
