Greenhalgh v Hu

In *Greenhalgh v Hu*, the Supreme Court of New South Wales considered a dispute between a vendor and a purchaser concerning the sale of a property. The purchaser sought to terminate the contract of sale, alleging that the vendor had failed to comply with a condition precedent. The vendor, in turn, sought to enforce the contract and claim damages for breach.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the vendor had fulfilled a condition precedent requiring them to obtain a satisfactory valuation of the property by a specified date. The purchaser argued that the valuation obtained was not satisfactory, thereby entitling them to terminate the contract. The Court was therefore required to determine the objective standard for assessing the "satisfaction" of the valuation and whether the vendor had met this standard within the contractual timeframe.

Justice Street analysed the terms of the contract, focusing on the language used to define the condition precedent. His Honour held that the condition required the vendor to take reasonable steps to obtain a valuation that was genuinely satisfactory to them, rather than a valuation that was objectively reasonable or satisfactory to the purchaser. The evidence indicated that the vendor had obtained a valuation and had not acted unreasonably in accepting it. Consequently, the Court found that the condition precedent had been satisfied.

The Court therefore dismissed the purchaser's claim for termination and found that the contract remained on foot. The vendor was entitled to proceed with the sale of the property.