Date Formats : A Rare Headache in the Construction of Contractual Documents

When parties enter into a contract and it is evidenced in a written document, parties focus more on other contractual terms and pay little attention to the date format on the contract. Dates on contractual documents are as important as other terms of the contract. Construing dates on documents and other documents associated with a contract may prove very difficult if parties do not realise that there are different date formats. An email which directs a party to carry out a contractual obligation may be dated 03/05/2008. This date is subject to different interpretations and liability may be created for a party if a particular interpretation is adopted, rather than the other. This situation played out in the Nigerian case of Hassan Taiwo v Stanbic IBTC. This Article examines the date formats in different jurisdictions; effects of indiscriminate use of date on contracts and the approaches to be adopted in construing dates on contractual documents