Placer Development Ltd v Commonwealth - Assignment Example

UNIT NAME: GIVEN NAME: . SURNAME: STUDENT NUMBER: EMAIL: ASSIGNMENT TITLE: DATE SUBMITTED: STUDENT’S COMMENTS TO TUTOR: PART A QUESTION 1 STEP 1: The legal issue is between Steve who was looking for a present for Nicole (his girlfriend) and Julia who owns and operates an antique store in Victoria Park. Steve notices an antique mirror and a comb set on sale in Julia’s store in the window and the initial price was $250.He believed that Nicole will appreciate the gift. However, he could not afford $250 and he had to discuss with Julia to sell the items to him for $200. Julia agrees to do so but says that the offer will remain open until 10am the following day. STEP 2: The case is based on the principles of the law of contract where a contract is an agreement between two or more persons and which is enforceable by law and can be expressed either in writing or orally. For a contract to be valid and recognized by law certain conditions must be met; For instance, the parties should be willing to enter into the contract based on freewill without coercion, the contract should be enforceable by law implying that terms as well as the conditions in the contract must be legally acceptable and the contract itself should be legal and most importantly the contracting parties should have attained the age of 18 years as stipulated by the Australian law (David, 1971). Similarly, for an agreement to be legally binding; There should be concession between the offerer and the offeree, where both parties agree to the terms and conditions of the offer before they can arrive at an agreement There must be an offer which is made by the offerer and which expires for a stipulated period of time. In this case, the offerer has the right to withdraw the offer any time even before the stipulated time expires if the situation demands so. The offer can also be said to lapse if there a counter offer made within the time limits of the original offer. There should be an acceptance to the offeree and it should be communicated to the offeree by the offerer before the time the offer takes to expire. However, the acceptance needs to be fully expressed by the offeree for an agreement to be reached between the two parties. There should be a consideration, which is a price for the exchange of goods or services stipulated in the terms and the conditions of the offer. Under the case of Placer Development Ltd v Commonwealth (1969) 121 CLR 353 where the Commonwealth government offer a subsidy to timber importing companies in Australia. The Commonwealth government is free to change any amount as well as the rate at any given time. The government had the obligation to make payments to original importers; then declined. Placer Development Ltd wanted to enforce the payment of the subsidy. The issue court’s issue was to determine as to whether the government had given a promise that would be said to be legally enforceable. However, it was held that what the government’s promise was not legally enforceable. The court concluded that the promise could not be enforceable given that the amount of money was not certain. In addition, the government can always change the rate as well as the amount of subsidy. STEP 3: Although there was an offer to sell an antique to Steve by Julia for $ 200 which was supposed to remain open until 10am the following day, Julia sold the antique to another person by the name of Samantha who offered to buy at a higher price ($230) than what Steve was initially paying for the item. Based on the underlying facts of this case there was no agreement reached between Steve and Julia. Steve was doubtful at the time of the offer and said that he had to go and think about and then communicate later to Julia. Although, Steve later communicated through a message about his acceptance of the offer before the agreed time lapsed, Julia did not see the message until she sold the items to Samantha. Julia was free to sell the antique to any other person as the offerer has the right to withdraw the offer any time even before the stipulated time expires if the situation demands so (Patrick, 1975). The offer can also be said to lapse if there a counter offer made within the time limits of the original offer as in the case of Julia who sold the item to Samantha for $230. Thus, Julia had revoked the original offer she had initially made to Steven. STEP 4: In conclusion, Julia had no case to answer to Steven since Julia as the offerer was free to revoke the offer any time she deemed right to do so, even if the time set for the offer had not lapsed. Julia had expressly communicated to Steve that the offer will be open till 10am the next day, unfortunately Julia didn’t see the message, though it was not mandatory for Julia to sell the antique to Steven and she can revoke the offer any time she feel like even before the time has lapsed and given that she had not seen the message from Steven at the time Samantha came with a counter offer. Hence, it can be said there was no agreement between Julia and Steven. .List of cases referred to: Placer Development Ltd v Commonwealth (1969) 121 CLR 353 QUESTION 2 STEP 1: The case is about Annette, a tennis champion who is looking forward to represent Australia in the forthcoming European Championship and Paul’s Racquet Restringing. Annette needs to have her tennis racquets restrung prior to leaving Australia for Switzerland to participate in the European Championship. However, she sees an advertisement on the in the internet by Paul’s Racquet Restringing, the advertisement stated that the company is one of the best in Melbourne and no other person can do the stringing like them and that they use the finest materials when restringing champions’ racquets. STEP 2: This case is inclusive of conditions and warranties that are under the law of contract. Conditions are those essential principles and terms that must be incorporated in the contract, if they are not included, then the wronged party has the right to reject the contract and have the right to be compensated by the offender for the damages that might have been caused. On the other hand, warranties are less significant to the contract and they may not lead to the cancellation of the contract by the aggrieved party or the aggrieved party may not claim for damages in the event of the breach of the contract. As stipulated in Australian law, every person is aware of the difference between warranties and conditions. Nevertheless, the court does not describe the distinction between the two. However, it is deemed reasonable as well as fair if the terms are implied by the fact (Sirko, 2011). It must be reasonable and fair when the terms will be implied by fact. Furthermore, the expression needs to be comprehensible and unequivocal. As soon as the terms provided are recognized by law, they will be incorporated all contracts and also in certain contracts under the common law. However, terms can be agreed in diverse ways. They can be discussed or as well be included in a signed deed or be included in a notice or a ticket. Similarly, the exclusion clauses are defined in the same manner as any other term, if they are included in the contract. However, the explanation of the exclusion clause may seem indefinite (David, 1971). Therefore, the court should not give more weight to such conditions. All parties entering into a contract must have cooperation as well as act in a reasonable manner to give each party an equal benefit to the contract (Hugh, 1990). All parties to a contract need to act in good faith hence use the contractual powers in an honest and reasonable way. However, the element of being reasonable is not evident in this case as Paul’s Racquet Restringing did not act in good faith. Under the case; Causer v Browne (1952) VLR 1 Causer took her dress to Brownie who was a dry cleaner. However, Causer got a ticket which was typed something that stipulated that incase of injury or the loss of the dress, Brownie will not take any responsibility. Unfortunately, Causer did not see it. Later, the dress was stained. The underlying issue is as to whether the clause will be exclusive. It was argued that the ticket is not a part of the contract. In real sense, terms of the contract are contained in the documents. The court held that the ticket was only defining docket she needs to produce when collecting the dress after cleaning. STEP 3: In this case that involves Annette and Paul’s Racquet Restringing; contractual terms were in the form of writing. This was therefore a disclaimer that excluded the Restringing Company of any liability as a result of negligence on the part of its employees or any other liability that could result from use of poor quality materials or unsatisfactory work by the company. The company had laid down the conditions before entering into the contract with Annette and it could only have relied on exclusion clause when the restringing of the racquet was done by any of its employees, the disclaimer had exempted the company from any liability as result of loss occurring from poor workmanship by any of its employee (Dan, 2008). However, the restringing of the racquet was left to a third party who is believed not to be the part of the employees and hence the company was to be held accountable for Annette’s disqualification in the European Championship. Although, Paul’s Racquet Restringing was within the universal laws stipulated by the common law, the company did not act in a reasonable manner since of his employee delegated the work of restringing Annette’s racquets to his son who was not trained as an employee of the company. The son eventually made of wrong strings for the racquet making Annette to be disqualified. This is not in line with the terms set by the facts. STEP 4: To sum up, since the company had agreed to use high quality material to restring Annette’s racquets, the company is not deemed to rely on the exclusion clause. There was negligence on the part of the employee who assigned the duty for restringing the racquet to a third party who was not experienced enough and furthermore he was not an employee of the company. The company is therefore liable for the breach of contract and it stands to pay for the damages caused to the aggrieved party (Andrew, 1975). List of cases referred to: Causer v Browne (1952) VLR 1 PART B YES; given I was the judge of the District Court of Western Australia, I would choose to go by the precedents of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria, since there is elimination of bias, given that the case ruling is made by several judges and their decision is undisputed NO; by the point of law I may not follow a strong a strong decision of the Supreme Court of Singapore. Different geographic regions have different jurisdictions and each region is governed by its own laws. Hence, precedents from the Supreme Court of Singapore may not be so appropriate given that the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria is able to arrive at a decision amicably. WORK CITED Andrew Robertson, ‘The Limits of Voluntariness in Contract’. Melbourne: University Law Review 179, 180–1, 1975. Print Dan J B Svantesson, ‘Codyfing Australia’s Contract Law .Time for a Stocktake in the Common Law Factory’ , Bond Law Review 1, 10; 2008. Print Hugh Collins, The Law of Contract , ‘The Significance of Contract Theory’58 University of Cincinnati Law Review 1283, 1296. 1990. Print Sirko Harda, 'Problems in interpreting the unfair contract terms'.34 Australian Bar Review 206,319; 2011. Print Patrick Atiyah. The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract, chs 10–15. Melbourne: University Law Review, 1975. Print W David Slawson, ‘Standard Form Contracts and Democratic Control of Lawmaking Power’ 84 Harvard Law Review 529, 1971. Print Read More