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(CONTRACTS) H. Golightly is a professional football player who has played for the Toronto Mercenaries (Mercs) for the past three football seasons. The Toronto Mercs

(CONTRACTS) H. Golightly is a professional football player who has played for the Toronto Mercenaries ("Mercs") for the past three football seasons. The Toronto Mercs are a member of the Eastern Conference of the Trans-Canada football league. Golightly lives in the southern United States during the off-season.

Golightly had an exceptionally good season last year and was in a good bargaining position for negotiating his salary for this season when he met with Rusty Trawler, the general manager of the Mercs, last January. The parties discussed salary possibilities for the next two seasons in a tentative way but adjourned their meeting with a view of coming to final terms in early April.

In February, the Trans-Canada football league had its annual meeting in Vancouver. At that meeting it was decided to increase the number of season games scheduled to be played in the Eastern Conference from 14 to 16, commencing with the current season. Previously, the Eastern Conference had always had a schedule of 14 regular season games for each team. By contrast the Western Conference had had a schedule of 16 games for several seasons. This decision brought the Eastern Conference in line with the Western Conference. It received wide publicity in the new media of the various cities with teams in the Eastern Conference.

On last April 3, Golightly telephoned Trawler from Biloxi, Mississippi and they agreed to meet on April 6th in the offices of O.J. Berman, Q.C., Golightly's solicitor in Toronto. The meeting between Golightly, Trawler and Berman lasted about three hours. Eventually, it was agreed that Golightly should be paid $105,000 for the current season and $135,000 for the following year plus further amounts for playoffs and bonuses. Two separate contracts were signed to cover the two seasons. At the time, neither Golightly, nor his lawyer, Berman, had any knowledge that the number of league games in the Eastern Conference had been increased from 14 to 16. In fact, the parties did not even refer in any way to the number of games during their meeting in Berman's office. Trawler made no mention of the increased schedule. Both contracts simply stated:

The Player agrees that during the term of this contract, he will play football and he will engage in activities related to football only for the Club and will play for the Club in all its Conference's scheduled and playoff games ...

The contracts also contained a clause to the effect that the player could be traded to a team in the Western Conference.

It was not until later, when Golightly reported for training, that he learned about the increase in the schedule. He immediately claimed that he would not have agreed to the salaries of $105,000 and $135,000, respectively, had he known about this change. He would have bargained for more. On Berman's advice, he brought an action to have these contracts set aside with a view to their renegotiation.

Expression a legal opinion, with detailed reasons and support for those reasons, about whether this action is likely to succeed? Does Golightly have an action in negligence against Berman? Why?

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