...mistakes can also be learned from by two sides.
DOCUMENTS SIGNED IN BLANK I. A RECURRING question in commercial and property law is which of two innocent people is to suffer for the fraud of another. The purpose of this article is to consider one particular type of fraud, namely the incorrect completion of a document signed in blank. Four types of documents seem particularly vulnerable to this practice-bills of exchange, share transfers, insurance proposal forms and hire purchase proposal forms. The problem arises when an individual signs a document in blank and that document comes into the hands of another (the intermediary). Subsequently the intermediary fraudulently, or perhaps mistakenly, fills in tha blanks incorrectly and the document is passed on to a third party. The latter may enter the picture in various ways. The document may be a contractual offer which is addressed to him, or the intermediary may have assigned an apparently valid contract between the signatory and himself to the third party, or the third party may be the holder of a bill of exchange which has been negotiated to him. In any event, the question that then arises is whether the signatory is bound by the terms appearing in the document as against the third party. Looking at the situation in terms of offer and acceptance, and ignoring for the time being the principles of agency and estoppel, it is apparent that the offer made by the signatory is different from that accepted either by the intermediary or the third party. On this basis there is no concluded contract.
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