What is the objective test used to determine whether a contract has been signed?

Ontario, Canada


The following excerpt is from J.M.B. Cattle v Kaufman, 2015 ONSC 7372 (CanLII):

The Ontario Court of Appeal in Olivieri v. Sherman, in 2007, re-stated the principle that an objective test is used to determine whether the parties reached a consensus: The apparent mutual assent of the parties essential to the formation of a contract, must be gathered from the language employed by them, and the law imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of his words and acts. It judges his intention by his outward expressions and excludes all questions in regard to his unexpressed intention. If his words or acts, judged by a reasonable standard, manifest an intention to agree in regard to the matter in question, that agreement is established, and it is immaterial what may be the real but unexpressed state of his mind on the subject.[3] [Emphasis added.]

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