STUDY CASE TO BE BASED ON AUSTRALIAN LAW

Sharleen owns a vintage furniture store in the south east of Melbourne. There are a few such stores scattered in the area. Sharleen's store imports vintage furnishings from various European countries.

Sharleen recently completed a very successful end of year sale and now hopes to replace old stock with new stock from overseas. She already placed an order for the stock some months ago and she needs the new season furnishings urgently. The sale went very well and 70% of her stock was sold. She is aware that if she does not get the new stock in on time from overseas, she will lose a lot of money in sales. Her cash flow will be adversely affected and she will not be able to pay her rent, telephone and electricity costs. She will also struggle to meet employee salaries and the substantial payments on her overdraft with her bank. In fact, if her order from overseas is not delivered on time to her business, Sharleen is likely to face bankruptcy.

She contacts the delivery company, Overseas Fright Solutions Pty Ltd, with which she has been dealing for a number of years. Davinder is the director and owner of this company. He is now aware of Sharleen's financial problems and instead of charging his company's normal delivery fee of $6,000 per delivery, which the parties have already agreed upon, Davinder now advises Sharleen that his company cannot deliver the goods for the agreed price and that if she wants them, she will need to pay $12,000 per delivery. Sharleen is very unhappy with this news but reluctantly agrees because of her desperate financial position.

It takes three delivery trips for the goods to be received at Sharleen's business and she pays the higher price for each delivery. The total payment is $36,000.

Sharleen is distressed and seeks your advice.

REQUIRED:

With reference to relevant legal principles, use the IRAC legal problem-solving approach to advise Sharleen as to her common law rights against Davinder and/or Overseas Fright Solutions Pty Ltd. Use appropriate case law in support of your answer.

-Identify the legal issue(s) arising from the facts of the case study

-Identify the appropriate legal rules that requires discussion in the case study

-Apply the law to the facts of the case study

-Reach a conclusion/ give practical advice to your client.

Your analysis should refer to appropriate cases and statutes and be referenced using the APA Reference system.