State the law. If you are stating a legal principle that comes from case law sta

Question

State the law. If you are stating a legal principle that comes from case law state the case and the citation that you are using as authority for the legal principle. If you are relying on a statute for legal authority then state the section number and name of the statute that is relevant.

1. Jennifer aged 25 years is the granddaughter of Betty who lives by herself in Mount Gambier. Jennifer has just completed a degree in Psychology at the University of South Australia. Betty promises Jennifer that if she leaves Adelaide and moves to Mount Gambier to live with her she will transfer her house into Jennifer’s name. Jennifer leaves her mum and dad, boyfriend and a job she held at the Service to Youth Council. She arrives in Mount Gambier and cannot find any work as a psychologist but she obtains work part time as a waitress in a café. Betty refuses to honour her promise regarding transferring the house to Jennifer who wants to sue her grandmother for breach of contract. Advise Jennifer.

2. On 1 February 2015 Sanche writes to Richard offering to sell him his 1974 Holden Monaro for $60,000, ‘the offer will remain open until 5pm on 3 February 2015’. Richard receives the letter at 10 am on 3 February and tries immediately to phone Sanche. He does not answer and Richard leaves a message on his Message Bank saying he was interested in buying the Monaro but was only willing to pay $55,000. At 10.30 am the same morning, Richard changes his mind about how much he is willing to pay for the car. He sends an email to Sanche saying, ‘Disregard, my earlier phone message. I accept your offer to sell your 1974 Monaro car for $60,000’. Sanche does not check his email at all on the 3 February but does check his phone Message Bank. He listens to the voice message from Richard and immediately sells the petrol to Bradley who he has also been negotiating with. On 4  February at 9 am he opens his emails and reads Richard’s message. Advise the parties.

Explanation / Answer

1 - Here in the above case, Jennifer has moved to Mt Gambier to her Granny as she promised her to transfer her house to Jennifer's name, she had made a Verbal contract, which is legal under Australian contract law(same is with US contract law and majority across the world). Here Jennifer can sue her grandmother as she has fulfilled her part of the contract and her grandmother has refused to do so. she could also ask the monetary loss she has faced by moving to Mt Gambier ( loss of job ).

But the only problem with such oral contracts are to prove them in front of the court of law, there is also a question on even if they have taken place, an evidence is needed to support such oral/verbal agreements which would help the case of the complainant. In the above case, no other terms and conditions are required to be fulfilled by Jennifer except she moves there to stay with her, which she does. Hence if Jennifer has evidence to prove the contract, she can sue her grandmother.

2 - Here in the above-given case the offer to sell is proposed by Sanche to sell his 1974 petrol Monaro and has written a letter to Richard (potential buyer) regarding same. There are price and time limit till when Richard could accept the deal. The terms were to accept the proposal by 5 pm till 3rd February. The letter was received by Richard by 9 am on 3rd February leaving plenty of time to respond.

Here Richard calls him and leaves a message on phone bank as sanche did not receive a call, that he wants to buy it for $55000 against a set price of $60000, which was checked by Sanche. Here according to the contract law, if any changes are made to the contract terms which are not in favour of the offeror, then the contract is void as the new proposal would come from the offeror. Hence here Richard has voided the contract and when he sent another message sent in form of email to accept the previous offer in the stipulated time limit, sanche did not read it till 4th February, the said time limit was elapsed. Hence Sanche has not dishonoured any contract. Richard should have used faster communication method which was available to him to get the Monaro.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse S
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.