Contract: admissibility of deleted words

In Mopani Copper Mines Plc v Millennium Underwriting Ltd the High Court had to decide various preliminary questions of construction. While not necessary to decide the issues in this case, the court considered conflicting authorities on the use of deleted words as an aid to construction, and expressed the view that recourse to such words was illegitimate in general, save that: (a) in a printed form they may resolve the ambiguity of a neighbouring paragraph that remained; and (b) the deletion of words in a contractual document may be taken into account, for what (if anything) it was worth, if the fact of deletion showed what the parties agreed they did not agree and there was ambiguity in the words that remained. The second exception was classically the case in relation to printed forms, or clauses derived from printed forms, but could also apply where no printed form was involved. However, if recourse was had to the deleted words, care must be taken as to what inferences, if any, could properly be drawn from them, as the parties may have had all sorts of reasons for deleting them.