Cacao Story Pty Ltd v An Nam Viet Group Pty Ltd

The case of Cacao Story Pty Ltd v An Nam Viet Group Pty Ltd involved a dispute over the terms of a settlement agreement concerning the sale of a business. The defendant, An Nam Viet Group Pty Ltd, sought to invoke the Court’s jurisdiction under section 73 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) to determine the terms of the settlement agreement. No written document was prepared to reflect the terms of the settlement, and neither party made a contemporaneous record of the agreement. The central issue before the court was whether the oral agreement to settle the proceedings on payment of $65,000 by the defendants included the $20,000 deposit.

The court had to decide whether the oral agreement to settle the proceedings was inclusive of the $20,000 deposit. In negotiating the final settlement amount of $65,000, the plaintiff had explicitly referred to its earlier Offer of Compromise, in which the settlement amount included the deposit. The court considered it clear from the context that the later offer of $65,000 was made on the same terms with respect to the deposit as the earlier Offer of Compromise. The court found that the context in which the settlement was negotiated and the references made by the plaintiff to the earlier offer supported the conclusion that the deposit was included in the settlement amount.

In light of the above, the court determined that the oral agreement to settle the proceedings was inclusive of the $20,000 deposit. The court held that the context in which the settlement was negotiated, including the references made by the plaintiff to the earlier offer, supported the conclusion that the deposit was included in the settlement amount. The court’s decision was based on the principle that the terms of a settlement agreement must be determined by reference to the context in which the agreement was made. The court found that the context in this case demonstrated that the deposit was included in the settlement amount.