Fundamentals of Business Law - Case Study Example

Answering Legal Questions Name: Course: Professor: Institution: City & State: Date: Answering Legal Questions In determining the best course of action for legal issues, there is a need to understand the principles through which legal proceedings and activities are based (Lipton and Herzberg 2008, 35).1 Law offers the correct avenues for solving legal matters irrespective of their complications. The following paper will address a case that requires legal intervention to find a proper solution. From the description, there are issues that are visible from the introduction of the promotion to the outcome and it is important to analyse and weigh the whole scenario in the formation of a proper judgement (Lipton and Herzberg 2008, 45). First, Speedway Airways Pty Ltd introduced a promotion to its clients and the entire public for domestic bookings. Speedways Airways had an economical crisis leading to low sales, which was the actual cause for the promotion advertisement. The promotions requirements and regulation was entirely dictated by Speedways Airlines and thus the mode of choosing the winner(s) and prizes to be won was entirely theirs. The occurrence of an information technology error shows lack of proper promotion or lottery conduct and efficiency. Jim Smith and Willamina Brown are two clients or participants in the Speedway Airways promotion. The actually met the terms and conditions for the participation of the promotion and both had hopes of winning. Jim in fact collapses from the excitement at the prospect of winning an all expenses paid round the world trip and is hospitalised. Willamina Brown on the other hand goes an extra mile by booking her family and friends tickets and consequently collects their points. The two illustrations show us how determined Jim Smith and Willamina Brown were in ensuring that they won the grand prize offered by Speedway Airways. The two participants had no control over the control of the promotion instead; they both receive winning invitations from Speedway Airways, and they gladly honoured the invitation. Speedways Airways introduced a notice nullifying the promotion in the presence of Willamina as she waited for the presentation of her winning. This is against the rules and regulations governing the promotion, contract and consumers’ laws and thus unlawful practices are eminent in the promotion. Contracts and agreements play an essential element of people’s everyday lives and outline the foundation of commercial law (Gillies 2010, 56).2 The form of a contract can be classified as either simple or formal contracts. The difference lies on the complexity of the contract. Offers are supposed to be communicated to an individual or individuals to whom they were intended. It can be to a specific individual, to a group of people or to the entire world. The termination of offers may be at any given period prior to its reception. Advertisements in any form of media are not considered as an offer but as an invitation to participate or be involved (Gillies 2010, 54). In the existence of a valid offer, the offer ought to be brought to the persons’ concerned attention through an agent or by the person making the offer. Once an offer is accepted, an agreement or contract is met and it cannot be revoked depending on the terms of contract between the parties. The agreement can further be portrayed as commercial or business agreements where the parties intend to facilitate lawful relations and as domestic and social agreements where there are no intentions of involving lawful relations (Gibson and Fraser 2005, 53).3 An agreement is termed to be an assurance or a lay down of assurances that are lawfully binding (Ford, Austin and Ramsay 2005, 46).4 In this situation, an assurance is a duty by an individual to carry out something or cease from doing it if another does it or ceases from doing the same thing, or pledges in return. A pledge or set of pledges are officially obligatory if certain criterion are met. In our case, in Australia, parties involved are required to have legal formalities that are understood and a general agreement brought to existence (Fletcher 2007, 77).5 Once a contract or term of agreement is drafted, the terms and conditions of the agreement or contract are supposed to be followed. In case of a disagreement or ambiguity, various interpretations are kept in place. Terms of contract or agreement are very important and should be closely analysed (Derham and Walker 1999 22). Oral agreement and other extrinsic materials that fail to appear in the terms of agreement or in the contract cannot be introduced to add to or reduce from what is entirely agreed upon (Baxt, Fletcher and Fridman 2005, 38). As stated by Van Den Esschert v Chappell in the Parole Evidence Rule; for a contract in writing, other evidence (e.g. an oral statement) is not allowed to add to, vary or contradict the written document. An agreement or contract may enclose both implied and express terms. The survival or being of a written article, which appears to signify an absolute agreement, is not decisive that it was meant to completely signify the existence of a written agreement (Crosling, Murphy and Phillips 1996 98).6 If however, the agreement has a section that illustrates it as being an entire contract, there is an ability to propose that it will be seen as an entirely written agreement that the parole evidence rule applies (Chisholm and Nettheim 2006, 51). 7 A contract can be terminated because of a number of reasons. The major and most commonly used or result of termination of contracts is through performance by the concerned parties. This implies that both parties played their parts in accordance with their terms of agreement and were satisfied by the results or outcome of their contract (Carter and Hartland 2002, 66). Termination of contract can be because of an agreement among the people or parties involved arising from various reasons. An agreement can be terminated due to frustrations and this exceeds the ability of the parties to control the turn of events. In case of termination of an agreement, it should take place before the approval of the contract or before reaching an agreement. The revocation can take place provided that the person or persons involved have not made any payments regarding the offer (Carter and Hartland 2002, 37).8 The type of reimbursement awarded is calculated or resulted from the gravity of the dilatation and whether the agreement is precise on the total of compensation to be made in the occurrence of a breach. The damages are classified as nominal, ordinary and exemplary damages. Normal damages imply that the plaintiff’s lawful privileges have been infringed however; they have not suffered any losses. Ordinary damages signify that the failure experienced by the petitioner as a product of the violation is either special or general damages. Exemplary damages are corrective and are awarded for a non-economical failure (Caffrey 2008, 48).9 An agreement implies that, a valid offer has been made and consequently it has been accepted. Courts normally use a test known as an objective test because it is usually impractical to identify personal intentions of the concerned parties. An offer is an apparent expression of the stipulations under which the individual is ready to go into an agreement with a different person and is willing to accept the terms and conditions (Caffrey 2008, 87).10 In this case, the agreement or contract lies between the betting and gambling regulatory board of Australia and Speedway Airways. Betting and gambling regulatory board acts as a link between the airline company and the consumer and its main function is to protect both parties from fraud and to facilitate a smooth flow of events between the parties. In the promotion, Jim Smith and Willamina Brown did not participate in any direct agreement or signing of a contract with Speedway Airways. In actual sense, they participated in a promotion, which terms of agreement had been set and to their advantage, they won but were denied their respective awards. The laws and regulations governing such cases as the one involving Speedway Airlines and the two clients are very clear. It clearly outlines the guidelines used to reach to the existence of the contract. The laws states that a contract cannot be revoked if there already exist a written agreement between the two parties. It further indicates that a contract cannot be revoked if one of the parties involved has already made payments as regarded in the terms of contract. In our case, Willamina Brown and Jim Smith appear to have completed their ticket purchases. In addition, the Speedway Airways confirmed their participation in the promotion and sent an invitation to both of them requesting them to avail them for the awards presentation. The final minute termination of the promotion implies unfair and illegal practice by the airline company to the complainants. The Speedway Airways honoured another customer’s claim as it already purchased the all expenses paid round the world holiday, which was meant to be given away as the grand prize. This clearly shows the level of incompetence and unfairness that was practised in the promotion event. To conclude, it would be to the best of both Jim Smith and Willamina Brown interest if the airline company honoured them with their respective awards. Speedway Airlines should also see it as beneficial if they honoured their promise to regain its business image. The airline company should know that the plaintiffs could claim that the promotion was a way of regaining low client turnout in the airways and a way of fraud. This would put a negative impact on the company’s image and may lead to serious legal consequences. References Barron, M. L., 2006. Fundamentals of Business Law. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Baxt, R., Fletcher, K. & Fridman, 2005. Cases and Materials on Corporation and Associations. Oxford: Butterworths. Caffrey, B. A., 2008. Guidebook to Contract Law in Australia. North Ryde: C.C.H. Carter, J. W. & Hartland, D. J., 2002. Contract Law in Australia. Sydney: Butterworths. Chisholm, R. C. & Nettheim, G., 2006. Understanding Law. Sydney: Butterworths. Crosling, G. M., Murphy, H. M. & Phillips, L., 1996. How to Study Business Law. Sydney: Butterworths. Derham, M. & Walker, 1999. An Introduction to Law. Sydney: Law Book. Fletcher, K. L., 2007. The Law of Partnership in Australia and New Zealand. Sydney: Law Book. Ford, H. A., Austin, R. P. & Ramsay, I. M., 2005. Principles of Corporation Law. Oxford: Butterworths. Gibson & Fraser, 2005. Business Law. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Gillies, P .G., 2010. Business Law. Sydney: The Federation Press. Lipton, P. & Herzberg, A., 2008. Understanding Company Law. Sydney: LBC Information Services. Read More