BUSN9123 Principles of Commercial Law Assignment – Australia

Subject Code & Title :- BUSN9123 Principles of Commercial Law
Assessment Type :- Written Assignment Case Study
Proportion of Marks: 30%
Word Limit: 1800 words
Before you Start: Be Aware of the General Expectations
• You must adhere to standards of academic integrity expected at Flinders University. If you haven’t already done so, you must complete the Academic Integrity Tutorial which includes a short quiz. A link to the Academic Integrity Tutorial is located on FLO just below Assignment Instructions.
BUSN9123 Principles of Commercial Law Assignment – Australia

• Assignments must be lodged electronically through FLO as a single word document.

• Penalties apply for late submission (please refer to the Statement of Assessment Methods)

Before You Start: Understand the Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to provide an opportunity to develop the following skills:

1.Analyse a problem scenario involving the following legal issues: contract formation and potential liability for negligence.

2.Use the IRAC method to provide a written response to legal issues arising in a commercial context.

3.Identifying legal principles relevant to consumer privacy and discuss in the context of wider ethical considerations.

4.Referencing and footnoting using the Australian Guide to Legal Citation v4.

1) The Problem Scenario
Tony owns a business which makes and sells apple cider called McLaren Orchards and Cider the Business. The Businessis located about one hour’s drive from Adelaide.Tony inherited the Business from his late father who founded the business 50 years ago. Due to health and aging issues Tony realised he is no longer able to take care of the Business and decided it is time to sell it. RecentlyTony’s younger half-sister Julie won the lottery and is interested in buying the Business. After some lengthy discussions over a Sunday BBQ at Tony’s house Tony and Julie sign the following document which Tony prepared:

Heads of Agreement

1.Tony agrees to sell and Julie agrees to buy Tony’s apple cider business called Mc Laren Orchards and Cider
2.Purchase Price: $2.5 million.
3.All supplier agreements to be transferred to Julie.
4. All fixtures as inspected, are included in the sale Fittings are not included.
5.All employees to be transferred as per formal lawyer agreement.
6.This agreement is subject to the preparation of a formal contract of sale based on these terms.

BUSN9123 Principles of Commercial Law Assignment – Australia

Tony arranged for his lawyer to prepare formal legal documents to send to Julie. When Julie received the documentation from Tony’s lawyer, she called Tony, and the following conversation transpired:

Julie: I have changed my mind. I am going to buy a new house and car instead.
Tony: But it is too late to change your mind, you have already signed the Heads of Agreement. You are legally bound.
Julie: Legally bound, I don’t think so There is no contract yet I am your sister don’t be like that.
Tony: Business is business. Better call your lawyer. Expect a lawsuit soon.

Julie didn’t think much of Tony’s threat of legal action, and instead decided to go car shopping. Julie was attracted to a new company called Sustainable Motors Pty Ltd Sustainable Motors which specialise in electronic cars and Julie decided to visit the dealership in Adelaide. When she arrived at Sustainable Motors’ dealership, she parked her car in the customer parking and while walking towards the entrance, her mobile phone rang. While still walking, Julie answered the call it was Tony’s lawyer who asked Julie to provide contact details for her lawyer because Tony had decided to commence legal action. While talking on the phone Julie didn’t notice a series of giant inflatable air dancers lining the entrance and swaying around.

Note: The inflatable air dancers were being used by Sustainable Motors as an advertising gimmick to
attract attention to the dealership. They were about 2 – 2.5 metres in height. The picture below shows
what they look like:

When the phone call ended she came face-to-face with one of the inflat able air dancers which had blown down slightly to her height Julie was startled by what she saw and became entangled with the inflatable air dancer. This caused her to trip fall to the ground and fracture her wrist. After injuring her wrist Julie attended the emergency room at a local private hospital and underwent surgery later that day. A few weeks later Julie received phone calls from PhysioPlus Rehabilitation and Scringe Personal Injury Lawyers. During these phone calls it became clear to Julie that her private health insurer, Health All Around Insurance Ltd Health All Around had passed on her personal information and details about the accident to the physiotherapist and the lawyer. Julie is irritated because she hates tele marketing and feels like her personal information has been misused. In fact according to Julie her privacy has been violated.

2) The Questions
Question A – Was Julie correct in saying that there is no contract with Tony?
Question B – Is Sustainable Motors liable for the injury Julie suffered?

Note: for Questions 1 and 2 you must use the IRAC method.

Question C – Imagine you were asked to advise Health All-Around about whether they were permitted to pass on Julie’s information and details of the accident to third parties. Discuss what advice you would have given Health All-Around. For this question, consider both legal issues and ethical considerations.

Note: for Question C you do not need to use IRAC. Subject to fulfilling the marking criteria you have flexibility in how you respond to this question.

3) Getting Started: Guidelines, Hints and Tips

This is not a research assignment. You do not need to go beyond the case law and legislation covered in module readings, lecture videos and work shops. However you must correctly cite and foot note the legislation and cases in accordance with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation version 4 (AGLC4). AGLC is a foot noting system. Please refer to the AGLC4 Simplified Guide located on FLO below these assignment instructions.

Please have a look at the marking rubric on the following page Your assignment will be marked using this rubric.

BUSN9123 Principles of Commercial Law Assignment – Australia

Respond to each question separately using the IRAC method. Refer to workshop notes for examples of how to write an IRAC response.

The Issues have been broadly identified in the form of the questions Please stick to these issues Do not write a response to legal issues you have not been asked about.

Word Limit Breakdown Guideline: Each question should be given roughly equal coverage how ever need not be exactly the same. As a guideline each question should be answered in 500-600 words. However please remember that references in the footnotes are not included in the word-count.