" . . . it would, in my view, be unsafe to make a finding of dishonesty against Mr. Roberts on the unsupported evidence of Mr. Lewis and Mr. Abrahams, I approach the examination of the events of21 July 1989 on the basis that little, if any, weight can be given to their evidence where it is in conflict with that given by Mr. Roberts."
"It is commonplace of judicial experience that a witness who makes a poor impression in the witness box may be found at the end of the day, when his evidence is considered in the light of all the other evidence bearing upon the issue, to have been both truthful and accurate. Conversely, the evidence of a witness who at first seemed impressive and reliable may at the end of the day have to be rejected. Such experience suggests that it is dangerous to assess the credibility of the evidence given by any witness in isolation from other evidence in the case which is capable of throwing light on its reliability; . . ."
"Events at the pricing meeting and the making of the second and third representations as found by the judge are all inexplicable unless the first representation had also been made. . . . The judge failed to stand back and consider his finding as to the first representation in the light of his findings as to the second and third. Had he done so, we have little doubt that he would have been driven to conclude, as we do, that the first representation was also made."
"I am not satisfied that the first representation was made in the earlier telephone conversations in the morning of21 July 1989 in sufficiently unequivocal terms for it to form the basis for an action in deceit. . . ."
"If a man buys a horse, as a racehorse, on the false representation that it has won some great race, while in reality it is a horse of very inferior speed, and he pays ten or twenty times as much as the horse is worth, and after the buyer has got the animal home it dies of some latent disease inherent in its system at the time he bought it, he may claim the entire price he gave; the horse was by reason of the latent mischief worthless when he bought; but if it catches some disease and dies, the buyer cannot claim the entire value of the horse, which he is no longer in a condition to restore, but only the difference between the price he gave and the real value at the time he bought."
"Where possible the law seems to like to ride two or three horses at once; but occasionally a situation occurs where one must be selected. The tendency is then to choose the deterrent purpose for tort of intention, the compensatory purpose for other torts."
"There could be no doubt that there you would say that everything would be taken into view that would go most against the wilful wrongdoer--many things which you would properly allow in favour of an innocent mistaken trespasser would be disallowed as against a wilful and intentional trespasser on the ground that he must not qualify his own wrong, and various things of that sort."
" see the obiter dictum of Lord Atkin in Clark v. Urquhart [1930] A.C. 28, 68: and compare dicta of Dixon J. in Potts v. Miller (1940) 64 C.L.R. 282 , 298-299, and in Toteff v. Antonas (1952) 87 C.L.R. 647 , 650. It was, however, not until the decision of the Court of Appeal in Doyle v. Olby (Ironmongers) Ltd. that the governing principles were clearly laid down. By fraudulent misrepresentation the defendant induced the plaintiff to buy a business. The trial judge awarded damages to the plaintiff on the basis of a contractual measure of damages, i.e. the cost of making good the representations. The Court of Appeal ruled that this was an error and substituted a higher figure assessed on the basis of the tort measure, i.e. restoration of the status quo ante. Lord Denning M.R. explained, at p. 167: "
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