Sarcastic Facebook comment costs creditor US$21,000 loan in Thai court
Creditor says a sarcastic message that the debt had been written off was sent out of frustration, but the court rules it legally binding
The Supreme Court has voided a 670,000 baht (US$21,453) debt in favour of a long defaulting borrower because of a sarcastic message the creditor posted on Facebook.
Lawyer Kerdpol Kaewpol wrote on his Facebook page night that the creditor appeared to be very annoyed with the debtor, and wrote a sarcastic note to the debtor saying that the total debt of 670,000 baht plus interest had been written off so that the borrower debtor could be debt free.
Later, the creditor went to court with the loan contract and demanded repayment.
The debtor told the court the creditor had already written off the debt, and showed a screen-capture photo of the creditor’s Facebook message.
The dispute went to the Supreme Court, which made a final ruling that the posting on Facebook was an electronic message, and the electronic transaction law stipulated that such a message was binding.
Although the message was not signed, the complainant’s name appeared along with the sent message. Besides, the complainant admitted to have transmitted it.
The conversation was thus considered as a documented intention to write off the defendant’s debt, in compliance with the Civil and Commercial Code, the Supreme Court ruled.
The court dismissed the complainant’s argument that the message was sent out of frustration and it was intended to be sarcastic.
There was no proof the defendant was aware of the hidden intention of the complainant, the court ruled.
