This is an exercise in legal problem solving. This assessment task covers material in Contracts I...

Question

This is an exercise in legal problem solving. This assessment task covers material in Contracts I and II only.

QUESTIONS:

There are four questions in this assessment task. Students must answer them all.

Question 1:11 marks

a.Carbord Ltd (C) is a building materials wholesaler. On Monday morning C received a letter containing an order from a regular customer, Home Interiors Ltd (HI), ordering a certain number of gyprock sheets, with measurements, to be delivered to an address in Sydney the following Monday. C immediately posted its confirmation that the order was accepted. This letter would have ordinarily taken 2 days to reach HI’s place of business but, due to a strike affecting Australia Post, the letter was not delivered until Friday afternoon. On Friday morning, having not heard from C, HI, believing C were not able to supply the materials, ordered the same materials from an alternative wholesaler. HI sent a fax on Friday afternoon, before the mail was delivered, to C cancelling the order.

HI is now refusing to accept the gyprock sheets from C, or pay for them. Advise Carbord Ltd. (6 marks)

b.How would your answer change if the order had been received by email on Monday morning and the return email confirming said order was slow to reach HI due to a hacking incident to HI’s server? The confirmation email entered HI’s server on Tuesday morning, but HI had faxed a cancellation of the order at 4:15 pm the previous day, Monday. (5 marks)

Question 2:5 marks

Jenny misplaced her personal organiser while at work. She placed a reward notice on the staff notice board. The following day one of her colleagues, Samantha, returned her organiser. Samantha was not aware of the reward notice. Overjoyed at the return of her personal organiser, Jenny said she would pay Samantha the full amount of the reward. Subsequently Jenny changes her mind. Is Samantha entitled to demand the offered reward?

Question 3:6 marks

Joe purchased a small cafe from Simone. Joe was induced to buy that business by a statement by Simone who said the average takings were $2,500 per week. Two weeks after taking over the business it became apparent to Joe that the shop took no more than $750 per week. Simone’s statement must have been made knowing it to be false. Joe wants to return the business and recover the purchase price. Is Joe likely to be successful.Explain your answer fully.

Question 4:5 marks

In the course of an internal audit the inhouse accountant discovered that a senior employee’s daughter had misappropriated (stolen) nearly $500,000 from the company. The managing director of the company spoke with the senior employee and threatened to report the matter to the police unless the senior employee agreed to repay the money. The senior employee signed a document acknowledging the debt and a schedule of repayments. She failed to comply with this schedule. The company now wishes to sue her for the amount owing. Will the senior employee succeed in defending the action relying upon duress?

Ishika · Accepted Answer

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Q1:
(a) An offer expresses the intention to enter into lawful agreements with an individual it is addressed to on certain terms. If an individual is willing to comply with the terms of the contract, approval shall be given. This can be accomplished by a pledge or an act. In this case, in connection with communication of the C offer and sending fax by HI and another event, we may lay down the chronology of events in the following.
Monday-C receives an order for delivery from HI after Monday. C posts confirmation to HI.
Wednesday-C should usually have received a bid on Wednesday, but the bid will be postponed by 2 days due to strike.
Friday-HI is obtaining confirmation by C. By this time, HI had sent a fax to cancel the order, or to withdraw the offer to buy from its hand, prior to acceptance.
HI should reject the sheets from C, in my opinion. The correspondence of acceptance by C concerning HI has been postponed. C may have been vigilant in carrying out acceptance correspondence through alternate means such as telephone or fax. This is not important to our query, however. There is insufficient information available to us to determine whether the whole contract is a final agreement. This may however rely, in particular, on statutory and jurisdictional law regarding acceptance of offer in the respective jurisdiction, on the prevailing contract law. 
An offer can be withdrawn before acceptance. This is because the acceptance, whether it is still within the reach of acceptance or not, is not binding.
The conventional acceptability rule states that contracts become binding when an offer is accepted by publishing it. This is only the case if both parties have decided as their preferred contact tool beforehand. While no new media exist, there are several areas where there is still good law.
Case law- Dunlop vs. Higgins (1948), The letter of acceptance was postponed by 6 hours, then the expected hour. It was concluded that the letter posting was an acknowledgment of the bid and could not be refused by the offeror. If the party that accepts an offer sends the letter at the correct address in the package, how can it be accountable for what it regulates not?
So, HI liable to accept gyp rock sheets from C or pay damages.
(b) In case of the mode of acceptance being email, my answer would not change. Telephone or telex contact or email communication is almost instantaneous, and is on a different footing. Here,

This is an exercise in legal problem solving. This assessment task covers material in Contracts I and II only. QUESTIONS: There are four questions in this assessment task. Students must answer them...

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