Analysis of a Legal Dispute

Analysis of a Legal Dispute

Task description & requirements Assignment question James Brown operates water taxi service on Sydney Harbour through a private company called Endeavour Pty Limited. James and his wife Elizabeth are the sole directors and shareholders for the company. James Brown is approached by his nephew William Smith with a business proposition. William, who is 17 years old, says that after speaking with his aunt Elizabeth, he would like to charter a water taxi for a whole day. William said he understood the cost, because Aunt Elizabeth had told him. William says that he is a member of the Bangor Cricket Club (BCC). The BCC is a cricket club established for people with learning difficulties, and is a non-profit unincorporated organisation. William explains that the BCC want to have an end of season cruise to celebrate their upcoming victory in the grand final.

James Brown accepts the booking without asking any further questions. The day before the charter takes place, James Brown telephones the BCC to confirm the booking. An unidentified person answers the telephone, and says “Bangor Cricket Club”. James asks if the BCC were going to use the booking the next day. The person replies “hang on”, and after a few minutes, a different person got on the phone and said “yes, the cruise is still on, even though we lost the grand final yesterday”. The cruise goes ahead, and at the end of the day, James Brown is presented with an autographed cricket bat signed by all the members of the BCC as a token of their appreciation. Endeavour Pty Ltd sends an invoice in the amount of $2500 for the water taxi charter to the BCC. The BCC President replies in writing and says they are not responsible for the invoice, as they had no contract with Endeavour Pty Ltd and understood the cruise to be a donation by James Brown personally to the BCC that was negotiated by William Smith. In any event, the BCC had provided a cricket bat to James Brown.

In your opinion, is it likely that a contract exists between Endeavour Pty Ltd and the BCC? Justify your opinion.
The opinion must:
(a) Be framed in terms of likely legal consequences if the matter proceeded to trial and discuss all potential arguments raised by the factual matrix;
(b) Support its contentions by reference to relevant decided case law;
(c) Proceed on the basis of the general common law of contract within Australia. Avoid reference to legislative changes to the law such as sales of goods legislation and Australian consumer law (which will be dealt with later in the semester);
(d) Be written in the grammatical person of third person singular. Accordingly, sentences should read like “It is a legal principle …”; “The courts have stated that …”; or similar.
(e) Utilise the MLM essay format. In using the MLM essay format, the opinion should be organised as follows:
As to the body of the opinion, the approach to be applied is the FILA approach:
1. Facts
(In practice, working under this heading would require a brief overview of relevant facts. However, for this assignment, all that is required here is a simple statement: ‘The facts are as explained in the assignment task.’)

2. Issues
(A short description of relevant issues)

3. Law
(A discussion of relevant law. Split law into ELEMENTS (S.L.I.C.E) that have to be established. This must be the bulk of the assignment.)

EG.
3.1 Overview – a valid contract
3.2 Intention to create a legal relationship
3.3 Offer and acceptance
3.4 Consideration and/or form
3.5 Capacity of parties
3.6 Reality of consent
3.7 Legality of object

4. Application
(This is the conclusion – what would a court likely conclude.)