JUDGMENT

George Seah FJ:

This is an appeal against a decision of N.H. Chan J and it raises questions of some commercial importance. At the outset, we like to observe that although notice of appeal was lodged on 15 August 1981 by the appellant no grounds of decision were supplied by the learned Judge. After waiting for more than one year learned Counsel for the appellant was compelled to file the memorandum of appeal without the benefit of a written judgment on 15 March 1983. As a result we have been handicapped in hearing this appeal inasmuch as we do not know on what basis the learned Judge decided the case in favour of the respondent. This is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs and we hope that such practice will not happen again. Before we consider the issues involved we will state briefly the relevant facts.

The respondent (plaintiff in the Court below) is a wholeseller dealing mainly in steel saws, tools and other hardware products and the appellant (defendant in the Court below) was one of the many customers of the respondent for a number of years. It was common ground that at the material times, the respondent employed a salesman by the name of Tan Boon Soon in the finish