Teubes v Wiese [1912] ZAWLD 28 (5 September 1912)

Evidence.-Oral Evidence to add to Written Contract.Gift.-Registration.-Necessity for.-"What amounts to gift in excess of £500.-Company.-Shares.-Contract to deliver shares or their ·value- on flotation.Damages for breach.

Semble: When a written contract, is expressed in unambiguous language oral evidence of surrounding circumstances not in proof of a custom, is not admissible to explain the unexpressed intentions of the parties in order to add a condition limiting, not suspending, the operation of the contract. (Aymard vs. Webster, 1910, T.P. 123, applied.)

The rule which invalidates gifts so far as they exceed £500, unless they are registered, applies in favour of the donor as well as his creditors. (Ba1·1·ett vs. O'Neil's Executors, 1879, K. 104, not followed.)

A gift of l,000 shares of one poiind each in a diamond 111,ining company to be floated is not a gift which must be valued at over £500, and is valid without registration.

A  contract to deliver shares, or their value, on fiotation of a company binds the contmctor, in lieu of deliver?!, to pay the value of the shares at the time of flotation, and failure to deliver or  pay at such time, does not render him liable to pay the highest value of the shares prior to payment.