James had a new house built. By March the building work was completed, and James decided to have the garden landscaped. He contacted Lovely Gardens Pty Ltd. (LG), a specialist landscape gardening firm, and arranged for an inspection and quotation from Mr Davis, a manager in his area. Mr Davis told James he had recently designed a garden in that suburb so was familiar with the local soil composition. Because it contained more clay than usual, the garden would need to have a special soil mix laid over the clay before anything would grow satisfactorily. Mr Davis said the special soil mix was available only through LG, and that it had been developed after a lot of research to get the formula properly balanced.

James later entered into a written contract with LG and the landscaping was done. Within a month James noticed that most of the plants were looking sick and some had already died. He thought perhaps the soil mix was wrong so had it checked by a horticultural expert, who reported that the fertilizer content was much too high, and that was why the plants were dying. The garden would only be cured by digging out all the soil, laying new and properly balanced soil, so basically re-doing the landscaping.

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James then checked his contract with LG and discovered that the terms and conditions did not include any reference to the soil and its composition. There was no mention at all of the special soil mix Mr Davis had recommended.

Advice James of all possible and reasonable legal arguments.