Influencer or Imposter ???

Influencer or Imposter ???

During the first wave of Movement Restriction Order (MCO),  youths were participating in online games. One of such is the Among Us, mobile game. The game's instructions are simple, if you're the chosen imposter, you should not expressively mention your position to other game members. The Imposter should influence others making them believe the third player is the imposter until he is the single person alive in-game. Then the player is announced victorious. Hear what? Seems practical to real life? Let's identify the traits of an Imposter as pursuant to Article 16 of the Contract Act 1950 before the imposter influences to kills us silently.

In my understanding, undue influence is the killer of a contract because there is no element of free consent. Undue influence happens when a dominant position in a contract receives an unfair advantage over the less powerful in a contract. For a real-life example; 

a) A spiritual advisor asks his weak consultant to write his property under the advisor's name, so the consultant can be born in a wealthy family in his next life.

b) A girlfriend being adamant and taking her dominating position in a relationship by asking her boyfriend to buy a Lamborghini under her name. 

c) A son-in-law receiving few acres of land after taking care of his old, aging, weak, and ill father-in-law in death bed. 

For further legal explanation and illustrations read below, 

A contract is said to be induced by undue influence where the relations subsisting between the parties are such that one of the parties are in a position to dominate the will of the other and use that position to obtain an unfair advantage over the other.

In simple words, undue influence means somebody who at the dominant position uses his dominant position to influence another party to get unfair advantages from him. Section 16 (1) of the Contracts Act 1950 had provided the definition of undue influence. You guys can refer to it for a more formal definition.

Where undue influence exists in a contract, Section 14 of the said The act states that there is no free consent in the contract. Section 20 of the Act 1950 then renders the contract voidable at the option of the complainant. The complainant may either rescind the contract ab initio or affirm it. Section 65 and 66 and 76 of the Contract Act finally governs the remedy available, which are restitution and damages. 

Undue Influence had been classified into 2 types in the common law which are actual undue Influence and presumed undue influence. There is no classification in our Contract Act 1950.

In Section 16(1) of the Contracts Act 1950, we can see that there are two main elements that must be proved to establish the undue Influence;

• Firstly, the parties must be in a dominant position. 
• Secondly, he uses that position to obtain an unfair advantage over the other.

If you think someone has influenced you to take unfair advantage, contact the nearby law firm immediately.