Problem 1: Yashilta Ltd is an aerospace production company which plans to be the first provider of suborbital spaceflights to the paying public. It is in fierce competition with Virginia Galactica Ltd. To accelerate its plans, Yashilta Ltd is raising $100 million from the public through the issue of shares. Consequently, it prepares a prospectus.

Yashilta Ltd approaches Maria, an expert engineer who has designed space shuttles for NASA in the past, to provide comments on the designs of the spaceships that Yashilta Ltd has commissioned. Maria gave her consent for the following statement to be included in the prospectus:

• The design of the spaceship is innovative and will allow Yashilta Ltd to be the first provider of sub-orbital spaceflights to the public in the world.
• It allows 50,000ft air release which will minimise fuel use and maximise safety;
• The design will allow for the creation of environmentally friendly spaceships as the spaceships will have hybrid rocket engines.

While Maria provided this review, she did not actually look at the designs that were sent to her by the directors of Yashilta Ltd as she was going through an acrimonious divorce and did not have the time to assess the designs. She assumed that the designs were good as they were created by her friend, Antoine.

The shares were sold for $5 per share. Based on Maria's comments in the prospectus, Nineveh, like a number of other investors, bought the shares in Yashilta. A month after the issue of the shares, a news reporter wrote an article that revealed that the designs that Maria referred to in the prospectus were faulty. The designs were not new as they were based on old spaceship technology that has been around for 20 years. Further, the correct air release figures for the designed model were 25,000ft and the proposed engines were not hybrid engines. Consequently, the price of the shares dropped to 3 cents per share.

Advise Maria on her liability for her statement in the prospectus (5 Marks).