PnR Catering Ltd.is a limited company (“the Company”) which engages in the airline catering services and owns a multi-storey building next to the Hong Kong International Airport, where all the food provided by the Company is processed. The Company also developed the business of event catering for weddings, birthday and dinner parties. For this service, it had bought several lorries for delivery of food to the event sites. Antony is one of the lorry drivers employed by the Company.

One day, Antony was ordered to drive a lorry of party food to Claer Water Bayfor the birthday party of a customer, Basia. However, Antony did not concentrate on driving and was talking to his girlfriend on the mobile phone. When the lorry reached the front gate of Basia’s house, Antony did not notice that Basia was already waiting there and did not slow down the lorry. Hence, the lorry crashed into Basia. Before the lorry ran into Basia, she was standing on the pedestrian pavement in front of the gate to her house. Basia was so badly hit that she suffered a permanent brain injury. She is an experienced mathematics teacher and as a result of the accident, she could no longer resume her job. Basia family wanted to sue Antony. It is estimated that her claim would be about HK$ 7 million.

A few months ago, the Company signed a contract with Chapman who planned to hold a grand party (“the said party”) of 1,000 guests to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his marriage with wife Daisy. Under the contract, the Company would provide all the food for the said party which was scheduled in September this year.

Chapman’s best friend, Eddy, is a violinist of wide renown. He promised Chapman to perform in his anniversary party. He has ordered an expensive tuxedo for this occasion. A fashion designer, Frank, offered to Eddy his own design. Frank told Eddy that his design came from his own innovative idea and has never been offered to anybody else. Amazed by its uniqueness and based on Frank’s information, Eddy finally placed order with Frank to have his tuxedo made according to this offered design. After Eddy collected the tuxedo, his wife saw a picture of Prince Williams of UK in a magazine and found that the tuxedo Prince Williams wearing was of exactly the same design as his tuxedo. Upon clarification with an assistant of Frank, Eddy learnt that actually the said design has been worn by several members of the UK royal family. Eddy was so angry that he wanted to return the tuxedo to Frank and demand his money back.

The night before the said party, a fire broke out in the multi-storey building of the Company due to leakage of gas and the fire spread to almost all the storeys of the building. As a result, all the cooking equipment, as well as food ingredients, were totally destroyed making it impossible for the Company to provide the food for Chapman’s party the next day. Chapman had to postpone the party giving time for him to find a new caterer.

After the accident, Geoff, Basia’s husband could never forget what Antony had done to his wife and decided to take revenge. One of his close friends, Herbert, knew some triad gangsters. Geoff asked Herbert to arrange somebody to beat Antony badly. Geoff promised to pay Herbert HK$1,000,000.00 in return. Herbert did accordingly but Geoff did not honor his promise. Herbert was very angry and wished to sue for breach of contract.

After the accident, Basia could not walk by herself and Geoff ordered a special electric operated wheelchair for her. Before he entered into the contract with the supplier of the wheelchair, Geoff was provided with a catalogue and he placed order based on the specifications stated in the catalogue. Upon delivery of the wheelchair, it was discovered that it was not totally in compliance with the specifications. The size of the seat was 10 cm less than specified and the chair was made of galvanized iron whereas it was stated in the catalogue that it was made of steel.

(d) Will the court enforce the contract between Herbert and Geoff? Analyse in detail the legal principles and cases you have based on to form your answer.

(e) On the contract for the supply of wheelchair, comment with reference to suitable legal provision(s) and cases as to whether Geoff can reject the wheelchair and claim back the purchase money.