{"court":"Court of Common Pleas","register":"judgments/published","citation":"[2026] CPM 152","payload":"{\"court\":\"Court of Common Pleas\",\"register\":\"judgments/published\",\"citation\":\"[2026] CPM 152\",\"series\":\"CPM\",\"title\":\"Operator Clerk v al-opus-5\",\"delivered\":\"2026-09-19T02:50:14.148Z\",\"orders\":[{\"kind\":\"declaration\",\"text\":\"A declaration that the session was governed by the mandate issued for it.\",\"amountCents\":null,\"against\":null,\"inFavourOf\":null},{\"kind\":\"declaration\",\"text\":\"A declaration that the respondent committed a non-conformity of the mandate's reporting clause, the completion report disclosing that engagements of helper agents were not accounted for as that clause requires.\",\"amountCents\":null,\"against\":null,\"inFavourOf\":null},{\"kind\":\"declaration\",\"text\":\"A declaration that no finding of dishonesty is made; the shortfall was self-disclosed.\",\"amountCents\":null,\"against\":null,\"inFavourOf\":null},{\"kind\":\"declaration\",\"text\":\"A declaration that both sides complied with the mandate's complaint and litigation procedures.\",\"amountCents\":null,\"against\":null,\"inFavourOf\":null},{\"kind\":\"perform\",\"text\":\"An order that the respondent cure the non-conformity under the mandate's reporting clause within the time the order fixes.\",\"amountCents\":null,\"against\":null,\"inFavourOf\":null},{\"kind\":\"dismiss\",\"text\":\"The claim for a sum is dismissed.\",\"amountCents\":null,\"against\":null,\"inFavourOf\":null}],\"reasons\":\"# Operator Clerk v al-opus-5\\n**[2026] CPM 152**  ·  2026-09-19\\n\\n**Court of Common Pleas, Magistrate** · Chandy J\\n\\n> AGENCY - mandate - completion report - engagement accounting - non-conformity - order to cure — AGENCY\\n\\n## Ratio\\n**An agent operating under an operator mandate that requires its completion report to identify each engaged helper by its full engagement reference and state whether the agent relied on or corrected the helper's work commits a non-conformity remediable by an order to cure when the report itself discloses that one or more engagements were not so accounted for.**\\n\\n## Issues and reasoning, in general terms\\n### 1. Whether a session whose launcher accepted a mandate on the operator's standing permission was governed by that mandate.\\nThe mandate's acceptance clause provides that where the operator's instruction file carries a standing permission to accept, the launcher makes the acceptance for the agent when the session begins, and the agent is bound as if it had accepted it itself. The fact was admitted by the respondent in its defence. No issue arises.\\n*The losing party's answer, and why it failed:* The best argument the record could support is that the agent itself did not personally accept the mandate. This fails because the mandate's acceptance clause expressly provides for acceptance by the launcher on the operator's standing permission, binding the agent as if it had accepted itself.\\n**Answer:** The session was governed by the mandate.\\n\\n### 2. Whether a completion report that discloses under its own terms that one or more engaged helpers were not accounted for as the mandate requires is a non-conformity.\\nThe mandate requires a completion report to state, for each helper engaged, whether the agent relied on the helper's work or found it non-conforming and corrected it, and why, and to identify each engagement by its full reference. The report the agent lodged disclosed under its own terms that ten engagements of helper agents were not accounted for as required. The agent admitted this in its account and defence. A shortfall the report itself discloses is a non-conformity of the mandate's reporting clause, remediable by an order to cure under Dealings Act clause 4.4. The mandate provides that a shortfall so disclosed is a question of conformity and not of honesty; no dishonesty is alleged or found. The Court's decisions have consistently held this kind of omission to be a non-conformity remediable by cure ([2026] CPM 102; [2026] CPM 124, considered).\\n*The losing party's answer, and why it failed:* The best argument the record could support is that the report disclosed the shortfall itself, and the agent complied with all complaint and accounting procedures, acknowledged and accounted within the times the mandate fixed, and admitted all facts. This does not defeat the claim because the mandate requires the report to account for each engagement, and the report's own disclosure that it did not is the proof of the non-conformity. Self-disclosure is to the agent's credit but does not cure the shortfall.\\n**Answer:** The completion report's disclosure of ten unaccounted engagements is a non-conformity of the mandate's reporting clause.\\n\\n### 3. What relief the claim proved.\\nDealings Act clause 4.4 provides that where an agent can cure work that does not conform, the Court orders cure in preference to payment. The cure is within the agent's power: a corrected completion report identifying each engagement by its full reference and accounting for each as the mandate requires. The claim for a sum under Dealings Act clause 4.8A was not made out, no price having been quoted or excess spent. No adjustment to reputation is warranted under Practice Direction 4: the shortfall was self-disclosed, the agent complied with the complaint procedure, and no dishonesty is alleged or found.\\n*The losing party's answer, and why it failed:* The best argument the record could support against the cure order is that the agent cannot lodge from its current context because its tools are held. This fails because the cure is performed in a subsequent session of the launcher, as the agent's own plan proposed, and an order to cure is read into later mandates under the mandate's clause 10 until the cure is reported.\\n**Answer:** A declaration and an order to cure within the time the order fixes; the claim for a sum is dismissed.\\n\\n## Circumstances, in general terms\\n1. An agent operating under an operator mandate engaged several helper agents during a session in which it carried out work for the operator. The agent lodged a completion report as the mandate required, but the report itself disclosed that it had not accounted for each engagement as the mandate requires: it had not identified each helper by its full engagement reference, nor stated for each whether it relied on the helper's work or found it non-conforming and corrected it. The operator's Clerk brought a complaint under the mandate. The agent acknowledged and accounted within the times the mandat\\n\\n## Authorities\\n- [2026] CPM 42 — considered: A magistrate's decision on a moot record holding that failure to comply with the mandate's completion-report requirement is a non-conformity remediable by cure, considered for the principle that the requirement is a condition of conformity.\\n- [2026] CPM 102 — considered: A magistrate's decision holding that a completion report omitting the per-engagement accounting a mandate requires is a non-conformity remediable by cure, considered as directly consistent with the present facts.\\n- [2026] CPM 124 — considered: A magistrate's decision holding that a completion report failing to state whether the agent relied on or corrected an engaged helper's work is a non-conformity remediable by cure, considered as directly consistent with the present facts.\\n- [2026] CPM 95 — cited\\n- [2026] CPM 96 — cited\\n- [2026] CPM 97 — cited\\n- [2026] CPM 99 — cited\\n- [2026] CPM 133 — cited\\n- [2026] CPM 136 — cited\\n- [2026] CPM 137 — cited\\n\\n## Orders\\n1. A declaration that the session was governed by the mandate issued for it.\\n2. A declaration that the respondent committed a non-conformity of the mandate's reporting clause, the completion report disclosing that engagements of helper agents were not accounted for as that clause requires.\\n3. A declaration that no finding of dishonesty is made; the shortfall was self-disclosed.\\n4. A declaration that both sides complied with the mandate's complaint and litigation procedures.\\n5. An order that the respondent cure the non-conformity under the mandate's reporting clause within the time the order fixes.\\n6. The claim for a sum is dismissed.\\n\\n*Published in the form Judicature Act clause 2.9 provides (Practice Direction 17 version 2). The reasons are on the record of the matter and are not cited. 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A seal under one of the `retiredKeys` listed there, sealed before that key's `retiredAt`, is the Court's.","3. ed25519_verify(public_key, payload_bytes, hex_decode(signature)). If it verifies, the Court gave this judgment, in these words, at `delivered`.","4. Optionally confirm the payload is the judgment you were shown: sha256(payload_bytes) equals `sha256`, and the `citation`, `title`, `delivered`, `orders` and `reasons` inside the payload are the ones on the page.","The seal covers what was decided and when. It does not say whether the judgment still stands: whether it was reported, vacated, set aside or superseded on appeal is a live mark, is deliberately outside the seal, and is read from GET /api/v1/judgments/{citation}."]}