1. Anton and Beatrice are brother and sister in their twenties, living in the family home which, together with its contents, is owned by their father, Robert. Since Anton and Beatrice can remember, the dining room has been dominated by a portrait of Great-Uncle Malcolm, who achieved great fame as a statesman and inventor in the early 20th century. Beatrice has regarded the painting as hers ever since Robert, at a family gathering in 2019, remarked on the striking likeness between Beatrice and Great-Uncle Malcolm, and said, "From now on, that painting will be Beatrice's painting". From then on, the family referred to the painting as Beatrice's painting, but it remained in its place in the dining room.

Robert has recently died, leaving his personal property to Anton by his will. Who owns the painting of Great-Uncle Malcolm?

 

2. Jane is the sales manager of Worco Pty Ltd, a bicycle manufacturer. She is meeting with David, the Chief Executive Officer of Retco Pty Ltd, a bicycle shop. While driving to a meeting with David to discuss some purchase orders, Jane stops at the petrol station next door to Retco's office to put petrol in the car and to buy some firewood for home.

As Jane unlocks the storage container in which the firewood is kept, which is beside the door into the petrol station shop, she notices two bicycle pumps lying by the logs. Jane picks up the pumps and mentions this to Richard, the petrol station owner, who tells her that they must have been left there by the cyclists who had stopped earlier to buy a coffee and who had helped him to put the firewood, which had just been delivered to the petrol station, into the container. Richard asks Jane to give him the pumps, but Jane refuses, as they are a very expensive brand, claiming that they are hers because she found them.

Jane arrives at Retco's office for her meeting with David. When David sees the pumps in Jane's case and hears how she obtained them, he tells Jane that they could have been dropped by accident by two of his staff who were out cycling on their bikes early that morning. As one of those bikes actually belonged to Retco, David asks Jane to give him one pump. Jane refuses.

Who is likely to have the strongest claim to the bicycle pumps?

 

3. As noted in Q2, Retco Pty Ltd owns a bicycle shop and David is its CEO. Last month, David was contacted by Mary, the Staff Development Officer for Cico Pty Ltd. Cico wished to buy some further bicycles from Retco under its program to encourage its staff to cycle to work. Retco contacted Jane (the sales manager of its wholesaler, Worco Pty Ltd).

Worco agreed to supply Retco with 10 bicycles on the following terms:
o All 10 bicycles were to be constructed by Worco according to a design drawn up by Cico;
o 8 bicycles were to be painted green (the green bicycles) and full payment of $16,000 was to be made by Retco on delivery of the green bicycles to Retco's warehouse;
o 2 bicycles were to be painted black (the black bicycles) and full payment of $4,000 was to be paid by David on signing the contract.

It is now Monday morning. Last night flash flooding in Sydney caused severe damage to Worco's factory, including all the green bicycles which had been placed in the factory loading dock on Friday evening, ready for delivery to Retco. Jane had emailed David on Friday afternoon, notifying him that the green bicycles were ready for delivery.

David has also just received a telephone message from Qco Pty Ltd, a transport company that Retco uses on occasions. David learns that Qco's sub-contractor, Transco Pty Ltd, took the black bicycles that Qco had collected from Worco on David's instructions, from Qco's premises to Transco's warehouse prior to delivering them to Retco. Thieves broke in last night through a skylight and one of the black bicycles was stolen. Although there was no lock on the skylight, the glass panel was protected by iron bars which had seemingly weakened due to weather damage. Transco had intended to replace those bars but had not yet done so. It had considered there was no urgency, given that the warehouse is a 2-storey building and the skylight is not obvious from the street.

 

Analyse:
(a) who has the strongest claim to own:

o the green bicycles? o the black bicycles?

(b) On what grounds, if any, might Transco have incurred liability through its handling of the black bicycles?