Australian Contract Law: A Case Study Analysis of High Five Systems

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Business Law
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Executive summary
To regulate the business in a fair and transparent manner the role of the business law is
imperative. This report includes various laws of the business for long term success. It includes
legal issues, facts, and problems in the given case study and analyzing the appropriate legal
solution. It consists of the role of compliance and the requirements that are applicable in the
business organisations. The contract laws assist in establishing, controlling and managing the
business enterprises by binding with the contractual relations.
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Table of Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Case study background................................................................................................................4
Jacob rights in the Contract law...................................................................................................5
Iris rights in the Contract law.......................................................................................................5
Hamid rights in the Contract law.................................................................................................6
Ranbir rights in the Contract law.................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Australian Contract law assists in concerning with the legal enforcement to create legal
relationships for freely entered into the contracts. In this report, it consists of the rights of the
parties of the contract under the law. Any people entering into the contract are abiding with the
contractual terms and conditions. Any offer made by one person is accepted by the other person
and some price is required to pay in return for the contract. Contract law assists in implementing
the rule and regulations for the enforcement of the promisee of the parties.
Case study background
On dated 25 November, an advertisement appeared in the newspaper about the Boast sound
system of model BS100 for sale of $2,000 which is the half of the price that is generally required
to pay for the set. It also states there are only ten units for sale. During this, it also advertises that
for placing an order to call on 97770000 or walk to the store at the given address.
Jacob dials the phone number for the same day advertisement and spoke to Rhonda work as a
salesperson. Jacob said that he accepted the offer and ready to pay and collect the set tomorrow.
Rhonda also wants to explain something but before she gives any explanation Jacob end up the
call.
Further, iris place an order on 25 November but nor able to speak with any of the salesperson
and left a message that if no reply is received and Iris assume that the company selling two or
more sets at the prices advertised by the company.
On 26 November, Hamid enquired to put the set on lay-by and the amount in full payment.
During this, told that she has to inform this to her boss but the whole day boss was not in and
Rhonda call the Hamid to call him later and information the non-presence of the boss. The boss
is absent for the whole day and only came on the next day afternoon. The next afternoon she
asked with boss and boss said that the company did not accept lay-by. In this context, Rhonda
calls Hamid back to inform about this situation.
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Hamid said that it does not matter and he comes tomorrows to take collect the set by making
payment. During this, Rhonda informed that Jimmy has already sold all the sets in the morning.
Hamid requested to accept the offer and at least one set is required to be sold to him.
In Morning of 27 November, Ranbir walked in and place and order for all the 10 sets. Jimmy
who is the salesperson was not sure that any set is left or not. The deli every company collected
all the 10 sets from the High Five system so that in the evening it could be delivered to the
Ranbir. Before all the sets delivered to the Ranbir cancelled the order and in the meantime, the
company delivers al the set to Ranbir.
As per the Australian Contract Law, it concerns the legal enforcement of the promises for freely
entered into the contractual relationships is termed as a contract (Graziano, 2019). At common
law, all the promises are legally enforceable until and unless the promises are not legally
enforceable or misleading promises. The contractual parties are also liable for the remedies in
case of any breach of the contract terms and conditions (Keynes, 2018). For the valid agreement,
there must be a valid agreement, consideration, capacity, intention, and certainty.
For valid contracts, it is important that all the essential elements of the valid contracts are
fulfilled. These elements are mentioned below:
Offer- For the valid contract, it is important that there must be an offer made by the one party. If
another party rejected the offer the contract came to an end (Freire, 2016).
As per the provisions of the Australian Contract law, the offer is of various types which include:
Express offer is the offer which is made by the parties’ through spoken words or in written
form.
Implied offer is the offer which is imposed by the parties conduct or as per the circumstance of
the case.
General offer is the offer which is made to the public at large and may be accepted by any
person. In this, any person can accept the offer the contract comes to an end (Farrell, et. al.,
2018).
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Specific offer is the offer which is made to the specific person or to an ascertained person. In
this type of contract, the person to whom the contract is made is only liable to accept the
contract.
The counteroffer is the offer where the offeree terminated the original contract and the terms of
the original offer are not accepted and a new offer is created (Abdullah, et. al., 2017).
Cross offer is the offer where two or more parties make the identical offer by ignoring each
other offer. In this type of contract, no party accepts the contractual terms and conditions.
Standing offer is the offer which is allowed to be remaining open for the acceptance for a
particular period of time. For instance, tenders are the standing offer (Decock, 2012).
Acceptance- If an offer made by one party then it is important that it must be accepted by
another party as a meeting of minds is important. A counteroffer is not termed as acceptance. For
instance, if a buyer offers to $500 for the painting and you would take it into $600 then you did
not accept the original offer and against that the new offer made by the party which can be
accepted or rejected by the buyer.
In the case of Carlill v Catholic Smoke Ball (1893 UK CA) where the court held that the
acceptance occurs through performance and acceptance need not be notified before the
performance.
In the case of Crown v, Clarke the court held that acceptance must be required to accept the
offer.
Consideration- For the valid contract there must be a valid and appropriate consideration. It is
the amount in exchange for something in value (Wright, et. al., 2018). This is the price which is
given by the one party to the other party for exchange of promise. It is not required that the
consideration is in money, it can be in kind.
Intention- As per the contract law, it is important that the parties must have legal intention to
create the contract and have the intention to create legal relation (Farrell, et. al., 2018).
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Competent- It is important that for the valid contract parties are legally capable and competent
enough to enter into the contract. Lunatic and person of unsound mind are not capable to enter
into the contract (Eisenberg, 2018).
In accordance with the given scenario, the High Five Systems made a general offer to the public
for the purchase of Boast Sound System. In these various parties posses their respective rights
during this offer. These rights are mentioned below:
Jacob rights in the Contract law
In the general offer, acceptance of the parties need not be required in the expressed form, the
offeree performance as per the offer terms is sufficient for the contract enforcement.
In the case of Carlill Vs. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. 1893 QB 256 the court held that in this case,
Smoke Ball Co. offered to pay the 100 pounds to any person who is suffered from influenza. In
this, the plaintiff used the balls of the smoke and suffered from influenza by which the person
suffered and entitled to recover the 100 pounds (Jamali and Khan, 2018).
In this situation, it is the general offer as it made for the public and Jacob has the right to intimate
them about the acceptance of the offer. By communicating about the acceptance the Jacob has
the right to pay and accept the offer. But it is important that Jacob perform the contract and come
to the store to buy the sound system. In this, Jacob has the right to buy the music system by
performance only telephonic conversation not bind the High five system to bid with the contract
and mandatory to sell the product to the Jacob. The contract is bind with the performance of the
Jacob.
Iris rights in the Contract law
Iris places an order but not able to speaking with any of the salesperson and Iris left a message
on the answering machine. In this situation, the contract is not valid as Iris implements the
condition that of she will not hear any message from the company then it will assume that the
two of your sets at the advertised price is sold to me. There is no consent on this High Five
Systems only heard this message not reply over it. For the valid offer, it is important that there
must be offer and acceptance by the parties. In this, Iris has no right to claim the Boast sound
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system without and acceptance and communication of the acceptance to the respective authority.
For the valid contract, it is important that there must be valid legal communication of the
acceptance should be inculcated between the parties of the general offer.
Hamid rights in the Contract law
In this case, Hamid went to the shop where he could put the set on hold by paying the deposit
amount to the company and settle the full amount a month later. In this Rhonda told to check
about this with the boss first. But the boss does not return for the whole and when he comes back
he said that he does not accept the lay-bys. This situation informed to the Hamid and in this
context, Hamid makes a call for the payment to collect the set. Hamid has the right to claim at
least one set as he accepted the offer earlier. As the amount of the lay-by accepted by the
company, it is the obligation on the High five systems to sell at least one set to the Hamid as they
become bound to sale the set. To accept the lay-by is not the company policy but still, Rhonda
accepted it but it depends on the company policy in case the company accepts the deposits.
Ranbir rights in the Contract law
Ranbir placed the order in the morning for all the 10 sets from the High Five Systems and on this
Jimmy told that if the sets are available it would be sent out to the Ranbir. But after that, the
Ranbir cancelled the order and the delivery company delivers the set to the Ranbir. In this,
Ranbir has the right to cancel the order as this confirmation of the availability of the 10 sets is
not confirm to the Ranbir and without receiving his acceptance the sets are delivered to him.
Ranbir has the right to cancel such order. Ranbir has the full right to cancel the order as High
Five System not communicate the availability confirmation to the Ranbir nor the company
informed about it to the Ranbir that the sets are available with the company. In this context,
Ranbir has the right to return the sets to the company.
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Conclusion
As per the abovementioned discussions, it concludes that as per the provisions of the contract
law parties are under the obligation to perform the contract as per its terms and conditions. With
the above-mentioned rights in case if parties breached any terms and conditions of the contract
then the aggrieved has the right to terminate the contracts. To resolve the cases the appropriate
recommendations are provided to the parties so as to resolve the cases as per the provisions
mentioned under the Australian Contract Law.
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References
 Abdullah, N., Hanafi, H. and Murshamshul, M.K., 2017. The Duty of Good Faith in
Common Law: A New View on Contemporary Contract Law. Pertanika Journal of
Social Science and Humanities, 25, pp.119-128.
 Decock, W., 2012. Theologians and Contract Law: The Moral Transformation of the Ius
Commune (ca. 1500-1650). Brill Nijhoff.
 Eisenberg, M.A., 2018. Foundational Principles of Contract Law. Oxford University
Press.
 Farrell, S., Machin, H. and Hinchliffe, R., 2018. Lost and found in smart contract
translation–considerations in transitioning to automation in legal architecture.
 Freire, P.V., 2016. Good Faith in contractual law: A “law and economics” perspective.
 Graziano, T.K., 2019. Comparative contract law: cases, materials and exercises. Edward
Elgar Publishing.
 Jamali, M. and Khan, R., 2018. The impact of consumer interaction on social media on
brand awareness and purchase intention! Case study of Samsung. Journal of
Marketing, 114.
 Keynes, J.M., 2018. The general theory of employment, interest, and money. Springer.
 Wright, K.L., Espinoza, M., Chadha, U. and Krishnamachari, B., 2018. SmartEdge: A
Smart Contract for Edge Computing.
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