Answer All Four Questions Scenario:

Martina is a champion tennis player and is to compete in the forthcoming Wembley Championship. She decides to update all her tennis equipment, including her racquets. She purchases four (4) new tennis racquets without strings and takes the racquets to George who is an expert in Melbourne to have them strung with the lightest strings and the correct tension. The day before Martina takes the racquets to George, she saw an advertisement posted on his website as follows:

'Special Thursday Restringing Package: If you have 4 racquets restrung the cost will be $100 per racquet. Normally the cost is $200 per racquet. This offer is limited to the first 5 customers!'

Martina makes sure that she is the first customer waiting when George opens the doors to his shop at 8am Thursday morning.

When she enters George's shop, she does not notice a sign which is placed on the wall behind the counter which says, in medium-sized print:

'Whilst all possible care is taken with stringing and restringing work entrusted to us, we cannot accept responsibility for any defective work or defective products used by us, and we will not be liable for any loss or losses to customers, even if demonstrably caused by negligent workmanship on our part'.

Martina could not have read the notice, even if she had seen it, since she wears contact lenses which she did not have with her at the time.

Martina mentions to George that she has seen the web page special and asks for the Special Thursday Restringing Package. George tells Martina that that it was unfortunate as that special applied to last Thursday and it does not apply for this Thursday. However, George says that the web promotion is just 'sales talk', and it is not really an offer. George says that since she has brought in 4 racquets to be restrung then he will charge her $150 for each of the racquets.

Martina is upset because the web promotion does not mention any dates or state that the package was for last Thursday, but Martina needed the racquets restrung, so she agreed and left her racquets for restringing. She further tells George that she must have the racquets by Monday at 10am as she would like to have a practice before leaving that night.

Martina was given a docket she placed the docket in her purse, as it would identify her racquets so that she could collect the right racquets on her return. The same words which appeared on the notice behind the counter were also printed on the docket in very fine, but legible print on the bottom of the docket.

Monday morning at 10am Martina arrives at George's shop to collect her racquets but, they were not ready, and George said that she will need to come back around 2pm to pick them up. Martina was furious as this meant that she would not be able to have a practice with the racquets.

Curtin College Final Assessment

Curtin College Final Assessment

When she returns at 2pm the racquets appeared to be correctly strung, packs the racquets with her other gear refuses to pay the full cost and only gives George $300 because he was 4 hours late and left for the Wembley Championships. George says that she needs to pay him the whole amount which is $600.

Whilst competing in the first round of competition, the strings in Martina's racquet broke. She selected two replacement racquets in turn and the strings also broke. She was eliminated from the first round of the Championships. Valuable endorsements totalling $20,000 which Martina would have received if she had played in the finals were thus lost and all observers agreed that Martina's poor performance was directly attributable to her faulty racquets, which had been strung with defective material. Subsequent testing of the strings showed that they were suitable for squash racquets, but not for tennis racquets.

Martina on her return called George and says that she will be making a claim for compensation from George as follows:

Cost of Flight and accommodation $5,000;

Training for the Championship $10,000;

Loss of endorsement fees $20,000; and

Disappointment and distress $15,000.

George says that he will not pay any compensation because there is a sign on the wall behind the counter which is visible excluding liability and furthermore, she owes him $300 for the restringing of her racquets.

Note: you do not have to have the scenario in your answers. Just number your answers as Questions 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Question 1 10 marks

With reference to law and precedent cases ONLY about the formation and misleading and deceptive conduct, advise Martina as to whether or not the advertisement for the package was an offer and whether or not George could be liable for misleading or deceptive conduct?

Question 2 10 marks

With reference to law and precedent cases ONLY about exclusion clauses, advise George as to whether or not George's exclusion clause is validly given and whether or not the wording of the clause would cover the harm?

Question 3 10 marks

Regardless of your answers to any questions above, with reference to law and precedent cases ONLY about damages, advise Martina as to what compensation she may succeed in claiming IF George was responsible for Martina's poor performance in the Championship.

Question 4 10 marks

With reference to law and precedent cases ONLY about performance, advise Martina as to whether or not she has to pay the remainder $300 for the services provided by George?

Note you do not have to use the 4-step process here. Law and application only.