Grace Shipping v. C.F. Sharp & Co. (Malaya) Pte. Ltd. - Privy Council (Lord Bridge, Lord Brandon, Lord Oliver, Lord Goff and Sir Ivor Richardson) - 10 December 1986

When an appellate court can interfere with findings of fact by trial judge

The Privy Council has stated that in a case where the trial judge had to assess the evidence of witnesses about telephone conversations which had taken place over five years prior to the hearing, memories could very well be unreliable and it was of crucial importance for the judge to have regard to the contemporary documents and to the overall probabilities. The Privy Council endorsed the following passage in the judgment of Robert Goff L.J. in the Ocean Frost [1985] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 1, at page 57: