| O'Brien v MGN Ltd | |
| Court: | Court of Appeal of England and Wales |
| Full Name: | Lee Headley O'Brien v MGN Limited |
| Citations: | EWCA. Civ. 2001. 1279. |
| Judges: | Potter LJ, Hale LJ, Anthony Evans |
| Keywords: | Reasonable notice, incorporation |
O'Brien v MGN Ltd [2001] EWCA Civ 1279 is an English contract law case, concerning incorporation of terms through reasonable notice.
The defendant put scratchcards with its newspapers-- Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People. If the card came up with money, players called a premium rate number to see if the amount matched a mystery bonus cash amount. Mr O'Brien on 3 July 1995 got two sums of £50,000. 1472 other people did as well, because MGN had distributed too many by mistake. MGN had only intended to have one prize of £50,000. MGN held a draw among the 1472. MGN pointed to "Rule 5", which said there would be a draw where more prizes were claimed than available. Rule 5, however, although published in some newspapers, was not to be found in the 3 July 1995 edition. This only said "Normal Mirror Group rules apply." Mr O'Brien had seen that. The question was whether Rule 5 was incorporated into the scratchcard agreement.
Hale LJ held that Rule 5 was incorporated. She noted that Rule 5 was no great burden on the claimant, as in Interfoto, nor excluding liability for injury like Thornton, but simply deprived a windfall.[1] She also noted that in the test for incorporation, the words "onerous or unusual" are not "terms of art".[2] Potter LJ concurred with Hale LJ.
Sir Anthony Evans was doubtful that judge's reasons were right and thought the rule was onerous enough to require more notice.