Referencing

Wherever possible, relevant authorities (such as cases and/or legislation) should be included as part of

your answers and referred to in support of your statements and assertions. Appropriate referencing of

such authorities in your answer can contribute to the marks you receive for a question.

1

LAWS 1018 Business Law Assignment April 2021

Your written work should use the referencing styles set out in the Harvard Referencing Guide - user

friendly or the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, published by the Melbourne University Law Review

Association (for which there is a link on the Business Law Moodle course site). These are listed on the

Portal for Business Law.

Instructions

Read the following factual accounts and answer ALL of the questions with reference to the

principles of law covered in the following lectures:

Topic 6: Australian Consumer Law

Topic 7(1): Contract Law - Part 1

Question 2

In January 2021 Kate, who is from Adelaide, went to Melbourne, Victoria, to attend a convention

on international trade. While she was there she met Ben, who was also attending the

convention. On one occasion Ben casually mentioned to Kate that he was thinking of selling his

car, a 2016 Honda Civic.

Kate was thinking of replacing her old car with a car which was more new, so after she returned

to Adelaide Kate wrote to Ben on February 15 asking if he would consider selling his car to her for

$13,000.

When he did not reply Kate wrote to Ben again on March 1, this time saying that she was

prepared to buy the Honda from Ben for $14,000.

Ben then wrote back stating that he was not prepared to sell it for anything less than $15,000.

Ben then proceeded to advertise the car for sale on the Internet website 'Gumtree' for $15,000.

However the responses he received were disappointing, and the highest offer he received was

LAWS 1018 Business Law Assignment April 2021 4

only $13,500. Ben then decided that perhaps he should sell the car to Kate after all, so on March

10 he posted a letter to Kate in which he told her she could have the car for $14,000.

When Kate received Ben's letter on March 12 she immediately went to her local post office and

posted a letter of acceptance to Ben agreeing to buy the car for $14,000. The next day (March

13) Ben received a phone call from Max who had seen the advertisement for the sale of the car

on 'Gumtree'. Max offered to buy the car for $15,000, which Ben promptly accepted. Ben then

immediately telephoned Kate informing her that the car was no longer for sale. Kate was then

very angry and insisted that Ben must sell it to her for $14,000.

(5) Apply the rules for offer and acceptance to explain the legal effect of the various

negotiations that took place between Ben and Kate.

[3 marks]

(6) Explain whether or not Ben is required to sell the car to Kate and at what price.

[3 marks]