Penelope has travelled to Victoria to visit her friend Kathleen. They have decided to meet in Melbourne and Kathleen has planned for them to stay at a fancy five-star hotel. Kathleen picks up Penelope from the airport in her new car and they drive to the hotel. Kathleen decides to park her car in the car park that is right next to the hotel and operated by Park Solutions Pty Ltd. At the entrance to the park, there is a notice which says: "Cars parked at owner's risk. Please leave car keys in the ignition". Kathleen stops at the entrance and is handed a ticket by an employee of the car park who tells Kathleen to proceed into the car park to park her car. Kathleen puts the ticket in her bag, parks the car, leaves the keys in the ignition, gets her bags and checks into the hotel.

Later in the afternoon as Kathleen and Penelope are taking a walk, Kathleen sees her car parked in the street outside the car park in a badly damaged state. She enters the car park to make enquiries. She is told by the car park manager, Mike, that they had been extremely busy during the morning and there had been too many cars in the car park. Customers had found it difficult to move their cars to get out of the car park and it was decided to temporarily remove some cars and park them in the street, to give other customers room to reverse their cars in order to exist the car park. Kathleen's car was one of the cars that was moved. Mike further explained that whilst Kathleen's car had been temporarily parked in the street, the keys had been mistakenly left in the ignition and a stranger had driven off in the car at high speed. Mike added that shortly afterwards, the car was found close by in a highly damaged state and driven back slowly to the car park by one of its employees. The damage done to Kathleen's car is estimated at $25,000.

Kathleen is upset and has decided that she wants to sue the car park. Mike however has pointed to the notice at the entrance and says that because of what it says, the car park is not liable. He also refers Kathleen to the ticket which was given to her at the entrance and asks if she has read it. Kathleen replies that she did not need to read it. Mike disagrees and says that if Kathleen had read the ticket, she would have seen that the ticket also contains a provision which says that the car park is not liable. Kathleen takes out the ticket from her bag and looks at the front of it. It says: 'Issued subject to conditions displayed on the premises and written on the back of this document'. Kathleen then turns over the ticket and sees that on the back of the ticket the following statement appears: 'The car park owner will not be liable for any loss or injury or damage to the vehicle howsoever caused, if such loss, injury or damage is incurred whilst the car is in the care of the car park owner'.

Kathleen now seeks your advice.

REQUIRED:

With reference to relevant legal principles, use the IRAC legal problem-solving approach to advise to advise Kathleen as to whether she can successfully sue Park Solutions Pty Ltd under common law for the damage caused to the vehicle.