Legal Claims and Defenses in Art Appraisal: A Case Study

BUSINESS LAW

Table of Contents
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
RULES.............................................................................................................................................3
APPLICATION...............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

DISCUSSION
An old oil painting known as “Rafflesia Flower” is owned by Xavier which was inherited
50 years ago from his grandfather. Xavier wanted to pledge this particular painting for easy
liquidity of cash as he was in financial difficulty. Yazmin a sole proprietor or owner of Yazmin
Art Appraisal firm is a close friend of Xavier. Xavier asked Yazmin, a licensed valuer and
appraiser of artistic personal property to value the old oil painting “Rafflesia Flower” at RM
5000. On the contrary, it has been examined that the real value of the old oil painting “Rafflesia
Flower” is worth only RM 2000. Yazmin agreed on the same and increased the value of the old
oil painting known as “Rafflesia Flower” to RM 5000.
In March, Xavier has successfully obtained loan of RM 5000 by pledging the old oil
painting “Rafflesia Flower” to Zach Pawnbroker Sdn Bhd. The Zach Pawnbroker completely
relied on the valuation report of Yazmin given by Xavier. Pawnbroker did not make any further
separate valuation because Yazmin Art Appraisal firm is one of the reputed firm.
Furthermore, after 6 months Xavier was not able to redeem “Rafflesia Flower” from the
pawnbroker. As Xavier failed to pay the loan and interest accrued Zach Pawnbroker Sdn Bhd.
wanted to sell off the painting by auctioning the “Rafflesia Flower”. At the time of auction, Zach
Pawnbroker Sdn Bhd. Was informed by the auctioneer that the real value of the painting was RM
2000. Furthermore, the painting was eventually auctioned at RM 2500.
RULES
In the Contract Act, 1950 the agreement is made between the parties which are competent
to handle the rules and regulation. Their are various essential elements of the contract law such
as one party offer things to another party and other accepts such offer. They both enter into the
agreement. It takes into consideration breach of duty at and infringement laws for smooth
functioning of the business (Lee, 2017). Breach of contract is referred to as the legal cause of
action by the binding of agreement with one or more parties, where one party results in non-
performance of the lawful duty or does not give true and valid information to the other party.
Negligence law of Malaysia takes into consideration duty of care, breach of duty, intention of
malice and fraud. Negligence is the breach of legal duty in order to take care of various damages
and results. In case of Donoghue v Stevenson, (1932) a friend purchased a ginger beer at a cafe.
She found snail in the bottle. This leads to lack of negligence and breach of duty. This is related
with the c urrent case study, because there was a breach of negligence and duty on the part of