In this case the House of Lords was considering an investors compensation scheme. Important aspects of the case turned on the proper interpretation of documents (ie construction of contract wording).

Two of the most important aspects noted are:

• "The meaning which a document (or any other utterance) would convey to a reasonable man is not the same thing as the meaning of its words. The meaning of words is a matter of dictionaries and grammars; the meaning of the document is what the parties using those words against the relevant background would reasonably have been understood to mean".

• "The law excludes from the admissible background the previous negotiations of the parties and their declarations of subjective intent."