Principles of Business Governance

Assignment

This assignment is worth 40 marks.  It must not exceed 1500 words for each question. The assignment is due by 4 pm (WST) on 25 th September 2018.  Students must submit their assignments in BOTH electronic and in paper form.

In answering the assignment you must use a 12 size font, double spacing and default Microsoft Word margins. The mark for your assignment will be determined by reference to the quality of its analysis, its clarity and organisation, and its presentation, including its freedom from distracting stylistic errors (grammatical, spelling, punctuation and typographical).  Where appropriate, references should be made to statute sections, cases, texts and other commentary. 

Late assignments will have 10% of the marks deducted per day or part thereof.  Extensions for the assignment will be granted only in exceptional circumstances. If something exceptional arises that you believe requires an extension you should contact me (preferably by e-mail) before the due date.  Reasons which are insufficient to warrant an extension include computer failures, car failures or other transportation difficulties, work conflicts and other study commitments

Cases decided by courts and tribunals have a name, a year of decision, report title, report volume, and report page number.  All of these details should be included in the first citation of the case. E.g. Stevens v Brodribb Sawmilling (1986) 95 CLR 523.  After that the case can be referred by name only.  Where you have found out the details of the case from a summary or other source and not from the case report itself, your sentence should conclude with that source.  E.g. In Stevens v Brodribb......(van der Waarden 2010, p18).  Note, this example is appropriate for Chicago style referencing; the end of sentence reference will be denoted differently depending on the reference style.

Legislation should be named with the year of parliamentary approval and jurisdiction listed as part of its name.  E.g. Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).  Cth is an abbreviation for Commonwealth.  WA is the abbreviation used for Western Australia. If you are referring to a particular section of an Act, you should name the act first and then add the section.  E.g. Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s. 117.

Once you have cited cases and legislation appropriately in the text of your paper, you should NOT list them again in your list of references.  Nb. Reference lists include books, articles, internet documents, etc.

See the Library guides at http://library.murdoch.edu.au/Students/Referencing for further information on Chicago or APA style referencing.  You can find information on AGLC 3 referencing at http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/mulr/submissions/quick-aglc

Assignment questions: ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS

Question 1

Eddie owns a valuable digital surround sound system which he is interested in selling and he knows that his friend Elise would like to buy it, since Elise has frequently admired it. Eddie does not wish to sell his compact disc player which can be adapted to the new surround sound system which Eddie is buying.

On 1st October, Eddie writes to Elise in the following terms "I want to sell my surround sound system to you. You can have it for $3500 but you must let me know by 8th October as I am going to trade in the surround sound system that day if you do not buy it. The compact disc player is not included, as I want to keep it for my new sound system"

Elise is keen to buy Eddie's surround sound system. She receives Eddie's letter on the 3rd October and writes back on the same day saying " I want to buy your system and I think the price is fair, but I cannot afford to buy a compact disc player as well. Would you include the compact disc player in the price of $3500 ?"

Eddie receives this letter from Elise on the 5th October and concludes that Elise will not pay $3500 for the surround sound system without the compact disc player. Eddie posts a letter to Elise on the 5th October in the following terms " Forget my offer. I will trade my old system in for the new system on the 8th October ".

This letter from Eddie does not reach Elise until the 8th October. In the meantime, Elise has reconsidered Eddie's original offer, and decides that she will buy the surround sound system from Eddie for $3500, without the compact disc player, as it still represents good value.

Elise posts a letter to Eddie on the 4th October agreeing to buy the surround sound system, without the compact disc player, for $3500.

Unfortunately, this letter is not received by Eddie until the 9th October. On the 8th October, Eddie trades in his old system for the new system, receiving a trade-in allowance of $3750.

A.  Using only the common law of contract, advise Eddie and Elise of their respective rights in this situation.

B.  Is Eddie obliged to wait until the 8th October to sell his digital surround sound system to Elise.

Question 2

A Fremantle cabaret artiste, Jack Jones entered into an agreement with the manager of one of Perth's biggest retirement villages that he would put on a two hour show every Wednesday afternoon at $250 per performance at the village for six months. The agreement was put  in writing and had a statement that the parties had not entered into a legally binding agreement. Instead, they merely had a mutually satisfying arrangement of " mutual respect and friendly cooperation".

Jack Jones had only performed five of the shows when he was offered an engagement on a large international cruise ship operating out of Singapore for 24 months. Without giving any notice to the retirement village, he stopped doing the shows.

The retirement village manager has been forced to hire another cabaret artiste that costs $400 per performance.

Would the retirement village succeed if it sued Jack Jones for breach of contract?