Oscar Chess Ltd v Williams (1957) 1 All ER 325, (1957) 1 WLR 370 at 375, 378, CA
Williams as a trade-in offered Oscar Chess Ltd as car dealers, a vehicle which the registration book showed as a 1948 model. Williams and Oscar Chess both believed this at the time to be true.
Later, Oscar Chess discovered the vehicle was really some nine years older and consequently sued for the difference in trade values.
The question for the court to decide was whether it was to be construed as a term of the contract or a mere representation.
It was held that Williams had no special knowledge or skill concerning the age of the car. Oscar Chess as car dealers had or had access to such knowledge. Thus Williams' statement must be construed as a mere representation and therefore no contractual remedy was available to Oscar Chess.
In essence the statement did not become a term because a reasonable person in the position of the car dealer would not have thought that an inexperienced person would have guaranteed the truth of the statement.
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