18April

LSSU394/594 ISSUES IN COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL SERVICES LAW

LSSU394/594 ISSUES IN COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL SERVICES LAW T1 2023

ASSIGNMENT

Question 1 (20 marks)

  1. Linus Lignum (LL) has lived in Burnie, Tasmania, all his life. He is a great lover of wood chopping competitions.
  • On 2 January 2023, he heard that Jason Wynyard, the wood chopper world champion, was competing at a wood chopping competition in Albury, NSW, on 2 March 2023. Jason was to be the star attraction in the competition and would compete in all six events. Other competitors only agreed to compete because Jason would be competing in all events.
  • LL was very keen to go to the competition and so he bought a premier reserve ticket for $1000 from Tikewood Pty Limited (TPL) which was the organiser of the wood chopping competition.
  • Having recently come into some money, LL thought he would “splurge out” and decided to book a private jet to take him to the competition. On 15 January 2023, he rang Giuseppe Orsini (GO) of Orsini’s Exclusive Flights and had a conversation with him to the following effect:

LL:       “Could I please book a private jet just for myself to go to the wood chopping competition in Albury. Jason Wynyard is my idoI and he is competing. I really admire him and I have a great love of wood chopping generally. I am only going because he is competing, I would not go if he did not compete”

GO:     “Sure. You need to pay $5000 by tomorrow and the balance of $5000 must be paid on 2 March 2023 before youboard the flight”

LL:       “No problems.”

  • On 16 January 2023, LL paid the $5000 to GO.
  • On 23 February 2023, the wood chopping contest was cancelled in Albury because Jason Wynyard had a horrific motor vehicle accident whichresultedin his hospitalisation for over one month.

Advise LL as to whether the contracts between himself and TPL and between himself and GO can be discharged. Please do not refer to any legislation.

Question 2 (20 marks)

  1. Gail Gallus (GG) runs a chicken abattoir in the western suburbs of Sydney.
  • Over the last six (6) years, GG has regularly contracted with Nero Domesticus Pty Limited (NDPL) (a chicken breeder) for the supply of live chickens to her.
  • NDPL is a company whose directors are two sisters – Filomena Domesticus (FD) and Hilda Domesticus (HD). GG, however, has never met FD or HD and has never corresponded with them by email or otherwise. All of GG’s dealings with NDPL over 6 years have been with Luna Quagmire (LQ). LQ always sent her emails to GG with the title “Sales Manager, Nero Domesticus Pty Ltd” at the bottom of her emails. All the emails from LQ came from a valid NDPL email address and from a valid NDPL server. From conversations that GG had with LQ over many years it was clear to GG that LQ was employed by NDPL.
  • Clause 45 of NDPL’s constitution, provides as follows:

NDPL is to engage solely in the business of supplying and breeding turkeys

  • On 1 February 2023, GG entered into a contract with NDPL to supply 1000 chickens to her by 15 February 2023 for $20000. In accordance with the contract, GG paid the amount of $20000 on 2 February 2023 to NDPL for the supply of the chickens. This contract was entered into with NDLP after the usual dealings that GG had with LQ as referred to above.
  • The above contract did not have the common seal of NDPL placed on it. However, the contract had 2 signatures on it. The names “Filomena Domesticus, Director” and “Hilda Domesticus, Director ” appeared next to  each of these signatures,
  • No chickens were delivered by NDPL to GG by 15 February 2023. On 17 February 2023, GG called NDPL and was told that LQ was away on sick leave for 1 week. GG then asked to speak with one of the directors of NDPL. GG then spoke with HD who told GG as follows:
  1. LQ is not the sales manager for NDPL and never has been, She is one of about 10 employees who feed and generally maintain chickens and turkeys.
  • The contract for the supply of the chickens is illegal as it is in breach of clause 45 of NDPL’s constitution;
  • The contract entered into on 1 February was not signed by any of the directors of NDPL and the signatures were forged by LQ.;
  • As a result of the above, NDPL refuses to honour the contract.
  1. Advise GG as to whether, by reason of any legislation, NDPL is in breach of the contract entered into with her on 1 February 2023 (15 marks);
  • Advise GG as to whether your answer above would be different if GG had been told on 31 January 2023 by another employee of NDPL that “LQ always likes to pretend that she is a sales manager for the company” (5 marks)


Notes

  1. In question 1, please do not refer to any legislation.
  1. In question 2, please do not refer to any common law principles.
  1. The assignment covers Weeks 2 – 6 of the subject. However, not all topics in these weeks are relevant to the questions. You will need to decide what topics or what parts of these topics in these weeks are relevant to the question. Please do not commence writing your answer to the assignment until you have completed all the learning resources for weeks 2-6 in the subject(Topics 2 – 6),
  1. Due date and submission time: Sunday 23 April 2023 at 23:59 (11:59pm) AEST
  1. Maximum word length: 2000 words (LSSU394); 3000 words (LSSU594). The word lengthexcludes bibliography and footnotes. A bibliography is required. Please view the UNE Law School Student Handbook, for the word limit policy. The word count must be stated on the first page of the assignment.Please do not be concerned if your answer is below these word limits. It is possible to produce a very good answer to the questions and be below these word limits,
  1. Assignment Style: Please refer to the style checklist in the UNE Law School Student Handbook for details on how the assignment should be formatted.
  1. Assignment Format, Please use the IRAC style for answering problem questions that we have used throughout the various zoom meetings. This means students will need to work out the issue(s) for the questions, state the relevant law applying to those issues, apply that law to the facts and then make a relevant conclusion(s). Students do not need to use the precise headings “Issue”, “Rule” “Application” and “Conclusion” but can if they wish.
  1. Referencing style that the assessment must comply with: Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4th ed. https://law.unimelb.edu.au/mulr/aglc/about
  1. Expected feedback available:  Ordinarily within 21 days of submission and available in Moodle.

Assignment Assessment Criteria

  1. Analysing all the main legal issues raised in the assignment in detail
  2. Identifying and stating the relevant law (both the general law for Q1 and any statutory provisions for Q2) applicable to the issues in both questions
  3. Applying the relevant law to the main issues arising from the facts in detail. 
  4. Drawing conclusions based on the application of the relevant law to the main issues discussed in questions 1 and 2