Contract

Whether the parties intended to enter into legally binding relations was an issue to be determined objectively and not by inquiring into their respective states of mind—the context was all important. The objective test prevented a party from relying on his subjective (and communicated) belief that he was not binding himself. It protected the party who had relied on the objective appearance of consent from the prejudice that he would suffer if the other party could escape liability by asserting that he had no intention that he had been legally bound, and did not believe that he was. The onus of proving that there was no intention to create legal relations would ordinarily be on the party who asserted that no legal effect was intended.