GROUP PROJECT

1. By now students should have arranged themselves into groups for the purpose of completing the group project, which is worth 25% of each student’s total final mark. I confirm the following in respect of the groups:

• A group is to be comprised of a minimum of three and a maximum of six students

• It is not necessary for students to form groups with other students within their own tutorial group or even within their own lecture class; a group may include students from any tutorial class

• The group will submit a joint response to the project exercise. After it has been marked all students in that group will be credited with the same mark. There will be no separate apportionments and no debate about whether one student made a greater or lesser contribution than another student to the project report

• Reports are to be of 1,000 to 1,200 words. Point form presentation is desirable

• The reports are to be submitted in the last teaching week of the trimester (week 12). 

• A copy of the report must be provided to Turnitin but it is essential that a hard copy of the report also be handed in during the final week

2.  The project will follow a similar pattern to that used in trimester 1 of 2013. Students will be required to read a judgment of the High Court of Australia and then answer a number of specific questions on the judgment. Answering those questions may also require reference to relevant passages of other judgments cited in the project case judgement.

3.  The case for study is Esanda Finance Corporation Ltd v Peat Marwick Hungerfords (1997) 188 CLR 24. I shall arrange for a link to the case to be provided on Moodle

4.  The legal issues canvassed in the case involve liability for negligent misstatements by auditors, an important matter for students studying accountancy. Unfortunately, the judgment is long and a significant number of passages in it refer to procedural issues about the way the case was pleaded, which lies outside the scope of this course. Therefore, students will be directed to particular passages in the judgement which they must study.

5.  As a start, students should read pages 214 to 218 of the BUS101 textbook, Business Law by Nicholas James (3rd edition) and in particular the snapshot of the facts of the case which is given in a panel on page 217. John Lanser 14 September 2014