Contract Law and Construction Industry

This assignment delves into a case study involving Syd, a contractor facing pressure from an auction company regarding payment for a building project. It explores relevant Australian contract law principles, including offer and acceptance, undue influence, and the importance of fair agreements. The analysis also considers the impact of the Building and Construction Industry Code of Conduct (WA) on the situation.

Initial Legal Research

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
1. Summary of the facts in the case study...................................................................................1
Question 2...................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Offer and acceptance in the contract law with the remedies.................................................2
2.2 Cartels and public enforcement action..................................................................................3
3) Sources of laws.......................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Contract is defined as a statutory agreement that is enforceable by law and makes parties
legally obliged to follow the respective rules and regulations involved (Evans, 2017). Australian
contract law regulates the legal enforcement of promises made among parties through offer and
acceptance and creates formal relationship between them. Auction is a process of offering an
opportunity to the buyer to purchase the item through bidding. The report here lay emphasizes upon
examining various key statutory requirement of the legal principles associated with the offer and
acceptance together with the possible remedies in the contract law.
TASK
1. Summary of the facts in the case study
 In the given case, Syd who is the Director of Non-Plain Jane Planes is specializes in the sale
of vintage aeroplanes and contacted two other directors also in the sale process, still, due to
lack of trust, he is not sure what he should do. After consultation, he clearly disclosed that
he will organize an auction as he agreed to sale the vintage plan, named “The Sky Faller”
through bidding process.
 Henceforth, an online bid auction took place wherein Vintage Plan was open to bid at the
website. According to the acution’s terms and conditions, the bidder who place maximum
price within the time limit will be accepted and the plan will be sold to him. The minimum
price set out for the bid was $2,000,000. It is considered as an “invitation to offer” that is
available to the willing parties by providing them opportunity to come and place the bid for
buying “The Sky Faller”.
 In the auction, it is already disclosed by Syd that two Directors of different companies
already bid at $6,000,000 and $9,000,000 above than least bidding price. Therefore, with the
intention to buy the plan, Syd had placed highest bid of $10,000,000 before 30 second of
auction closure. Bids placed by different parties is considered as an offer which means
parties are interested in acquiring the plan at their bid prices and the maximum bid price
placed by the Syd is accepted which creates agreement at a consideration of $10,000,000.
 As per the action term, being a highest bidder, Syd has to make payment of the bid price
within the time duration of 30 days to the seller. Syd was also not sure that whether he will
be able to re-sell the plan to other party at a good return or not and do not want to pay the
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sum of $10,000,000. In order to create a legal agreement, it is necessary that offer and
acceptance is given considering free consent without any undue influence, fraud,
misconception and others. However, in the case, Syd was threatened by the other two
directors that if he did not make the bid at highest price then he will burn his specialist
warehouse that is located in Victoria. It clearly highlighted the undue influence has been
undertaken by the directors to place the bid, hence, it cannot be considered as legal contract.
Question 2
2.1 Offer and acceptance in the contract law with the remedies.
Contract is the expressed or written agreement more than two parties to product and service.
It is legally bidding contract where both the parties should have basic knowledge about the contact
law so that ever implied and expressed agreement can be achieved and it not then it will cause very
big problem in the contract (Hutchison, 2017). It is the law which is comprises various rules and
regulations which can enforce of different promises. For creating a contract, different terms and
condition to be noticed, that are as follows:
 What is to be provided that is included in the offer.
 Acceptance is those which is agreement by the another party to be offer is presented.
 Consideration is the exchange which is done between the two parties.
 Capacity of the person involved in the contract include mental condition and age.
 The intent of the parties state that they both should promise.
 Terms and condition as well as the object should be legally enforced.
Offer
It is the part of the contract as well as proposal made in the contract. It is made by that party
who is making the promise as well as it is made to the person to whom he or she wants to make the
promise. It can be made by the signs or by the words, by the orally or written and by the messenger
or by personally. It is the open call to the other person wish to accept the commitment of the offer,
it is generally related to the products and services (Poole, 2016). There are two types of offer, that
are expressed and implied. Expressed offer is the offering which is made in the use of words which
may be either spoken or written. Implied offer is when it is inferred by any conduct of the party. It
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may be specify or general, if the offering is made by the specific individual to the specific person
then it is specific and if the offer is made to the uncertain person then it is general.
Acceptance
It is done when the other party to which the offer is made and that is accepted by that party
that known as acceptance. It can be expressed or implied, expressed is when the party made it orally
or in the written and implied is when it understood by the conduct of other party.
Remedies in contract law
Damages: it is legal remedy which helps in breach in contract, it can be made with money to
compensate the innocent party.
Repudiation: It is when, both the parties end the contract so that it does not breach in future
Rescission: It is the situation where both the parties are kept in the pre-contractual position
Specific performance: When one party need to perform some contractual obligation (Knapp and
Prince, 2016.)
2.2 Cartels and public enforcement action
It is the group made by the independent and similar companies so that they can fix the prices
with no limits. Their main motive is to reduce the competition and which is illegal in Australia. Due
to this formation of group, various damages are made on the statutory basis, they first analyse the
damage that are taking place in competition and how they claim for the damages. They are
providing different provision under the contract law to overcome the formation of cartels.
3) Sources of laws
Citation according to
the Australian Guide
to Legal Citation (3rd
ed, 2010).
Ma, Y. F. T., 2014. An Analysis of International Case Law for
Process Contract in Public. In Proceedings of the 17th International
Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real
Estate (pp. 677-686). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Details of how the
source was located in
short list format.
International symposium on Advancement of construction
Management and Real Estate
Initial analysis of the
relevance of each
selected source in
relation to the factual
The above article discusses that there is a significant change in the
offer and acceptance policies of Australia since 1980s. The
framework has a significant impact on public tendering process in
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scenario. daily life. The study focusses on 10 court cases since 1980s and it
can be evaluated that process contract is an important factor of legal
based tendering. Further, the court verdicts assessed that there have
been fairness and integrity in the tendering system. It is important for
all the parties involved in tendering to follow all the rules issued by
the government. Moreover, the decisions of the court have also been
evolved since last 2.5 decades and verdicts have become fairer in
case of tendering.
Citation according to
the Australian Guide
to Legal Citation (3rd
ed, 2010).
Davies, C., 2014. The fraud of Art: Mcbride v Christie's Australia
Pty Limited.James Cook UL Rev., 21, p.111.
Details of how the
source was located in
short list format.
The Fraud of Art: Mcbtide and Christie Australia Pty Limited
Initial analysis of the
relevance of each
selected source in
relation to the factual
scenario.
Louise Mc Bride purchased a painting of 'Faun and parrot' from an
auction held on May 01, 2000 whose seller was Alan Holland's fine
art company. He got this painting from O' Sullivan for $45000 who
claimed that he has got this painting from his father and it is present
in their home since 1980s. He auctioned for the bid range of $55000
to $75000. However, the painting plaintiff received was just a copy
of it. The case was entered under fraud and as per the verdict of the
court, Louise Mc Bride was given coverage under the law andMc
Brides’s fine art company was declared accused that he conducted
misinterpretation of the fact under the law.
Citation according to
the Australian Guide
to Legal Citation (3rd
ed, 2010).
Evans, P., 2017. The building and construction industry code of
conduct (WA). Brief. 44(6). p.22.
Details of how the
source was located in
The building and construction industry code of conduct
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short list format.
Initial analysis of the
relevance of each
selected source in
relation to the factual
scenario.
According to the case scenario of the above mentioned article, 28
recommendations have been considered related to amendments of the
act that is introduction of more efficient and equitable code of
conduct regarding construction contracts in western Australia. It has
been assessed through the study that there is a widespread lack of
awareness about the amendment among people. The contractors were
in misconception that commercial protection will be provided to
small parties. However, people aren’t aware of their rights and
obligations and lack its basic understanding when they enter into a
contract. Lot of cases have been reported where contractors lose their
money due to lack of knowledge. The study have given deeper
analysis of unacceptable practices that are conducted in Western
Australian building and construction industry.
According to J. Paterson's article on Introducing the new, National Australian Consumer
Law’. A section of trade practices act shows that the agreement between the parties should be fair
enough and should not include any undue influence. Every consumer and the trader are required to
follow the legal obligations while trading. It also includes the auction as well.
CONCLUSION
Based on the above case, it can be concluded that the companies should follow the policies
being issued by the Australian government in the contract act. Syd was pressurised by the auction
company in order to make the payment. However, it abides the law and offer and acceptance made
by the party should be fair enough for smooth commencement.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Knapp, C. L and Prince, H. G., 2016. Problems in Contract Law: cases and materials. Wolters
Kluwer Law & Business.
Poole, J., 2016. Textbook on contract law. Oxford University Press.
Hutchison, A., 2017. Decolonising South African Contract Law: An Argument for Synthesis. In
The Constitutional Dimension of Contract Law (pp. 151-184). Springer International Publishing.
Davies, C., 2014. The fraud of Art: Mcbride v Christie's Australia Pty Limited.James Cook UL
Rev., 21, p.111.
Evans, P., 2017. The building and construction industry code of conduct (WA). Brief. 44(6). p.22.
Ma, Y. F. T., 2014. An Analysis of International Case Law for Process Contract in Public.
In Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management
and Real Estate (pp. 677-686). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
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