A judge has ruled a farmer owes $82,000 after breaching a contract he agreed to by sending a thumbs-up emoji.
According to court documents issued by the King’s Bench for Saskatchewan in March 2021, grain purchasers from South West Terminal LTD (SWT) sent a text message to a supplier wanting to buy flax for $17 a bushel with delivery due in October, November or December.
After phone calls with farmers Bob and Chris Achter, SWT drafted a contract for Chris to sell the firm 86 metric tons of flax at a cost of $17 a bushel with delivery in November.
The SWT rep reportedly signed the contract in ink and sent a photo ti Chris Achter with a message saying “please confirm flax contract,” reports CNN Business.
The court documents say the farmer responded with the thumbs-up emoji. However, the flax was never delivered in November 2021, the court documents say.
By then the price of flax was around $41 a bushel.
SWT told the court its representative had done at least four other contracts with Achter via text. Each time he responded with “ok”, “yup” or “looks good”.
The only difference this time was he simply sent the emoji.
In the court document, Achter claimed the emoji was to show receipt of the contract. He said: “The thumbs-up emoji simply confirmed that I received the flax contract. It was not a confirmation that I agreed with the terms of the flax contract.
“The full terms and conditions of the flax contract were not sent to me, and I understood that the complete contract would follow by fax or email for me to review and sign. Mr. Mikleborough [sic] regularly texted me, and many of the messages were informal.”
Achter’s legal representatives said in the documents, “allowing a simple thumbs-up emoji to signify identity and acceptance would open up the flood gates to allow all sorts of cases coming forward asking for interpretations as to what various different emojis mean – for example what does a fist emoji mean or a handshake emoji mean, etc. Counsel argues the courts will be inundated with all kinds of cases if this court finds that the thumbs-up emoji can take the place of a signature.”
Achter also claimed he would never sign a contract without an “act of God” clause.
The judge said it appears the deal was “at least verbally struck,” according to the documents. He said: “I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Chris okayed or approved the contract just like he had done before except this time he used a thumbs-up emoji.
“In my opinion, when considering all of the circumstances that meant approval of the flax contract and not simply that he had received the contract and was going to think about it. In my view a reasonable bystander knowing all of the background would come to the objective understanding that the parties had reached consensus ad item – a meeting of the minds – just like they had done on numerous other occasions.”
The judge ruled Achter owed SWT $82,000 plus interests and costs for failing to deliver the flax.
