LAW 122 Lecture 3: Business law 122 fact scenarios (class 3) winter 2016
Document Summary
The defendants were directors of a company that published a statement in its company prospectus that it had obtained government authorization to use a new technology steam. In fact, they had not yet received authorization, although they believed that they would. Relying on the statement in the prospectus, the plaintiff, Authorization for the company to use steam ultimately was denied and the company went bankrupt. The house of lords determined that the elements for the tort of deceit were not satisfied because the directors honestly believed that the company would receive authorization to use steam. Although the directors may have been careless, that is not sufficient to meet the legal test for deceit. It requires knowledge that the statement is not true. Hill v. church of scientology of toronto, [1995] scc. The church of scientology and its lawyer, morris manning, publicly accused casey hill, a crown attorney, of breaching judicial orders sealing certain documents belonging to the church.
