Question 1(10 marks)

David is 23year olds and lived with his grandfather Otis until he died a few months ago. David grew up without formal education and was mainly taught about basic survival and everyday living from his grandfather, who was also illiterate at the time. His grandfather owned a 5 acre land with a small farm-house which he inherited from his own father. Unbeknown to David and his grandfather, the land was believed to have contained precious minerals. In addition, Otis had a life insurance with David as beneficiary for the sum of $500,000.00

Mark is a local Lawyer who discovered documents from the archives that indicated that there were gold in the land belonging to David and his grandfather. He had approached David's grandfather 2 years prior to his death offering to buy the land but David's grandfather refused as the land had been passed down for generations. Mark was the lawyer for Otis and has prepared the Will of Otis to transfer the property to David upon his death. Upon learning of Otis's death, Mark thought it was an opportunity to buy the land and mine it. Mark approached David one day and told David he needed to sign some papers to ensure that the land was registered in David's name. David, with his limited knowledge and with the knowledge that Mark had been looking after the dealings of the property of Otis, agreed to sign the papers. These were in fact, transfer papers from David to Mark.

One week later, David was visited by Greg, an employee of the Insurance company. Greg had a habit of making bad investments. When he found out about David's claim to the life insurance, he took up the case folder as he was also friends with David and knew about David's background. During the visit, Greg explained about the claim and told David that it was a wise decision to invest the money in Greg's company. Greg also said that the money would ensure that David got his returns 50% more than his investment. David had no reason to doubt Greg as he was a friend and agreed to sign off the transfer of the funds to Greg. 2 weeks later Covid19 pandemic closed down businesses and David lost his investment.

David has come to you to seek legal advice on the possibility of a claim against both Mark and Greg. Advice David and discuss the possible defenses that can be raised by both Mark and Greg