Assessment item 2
Problem question
Value: 10%
Due date: 29-Aug-2015
Return date: 19-Sep-2015
Length: 1000 words
Submission method options
Alternative submission method
Task
You must use the ILAC format when writing your answers.

**In this subject, assignments are marked on-line, using an adapted MS Word programme. You therefore MUST submit your assignment in Word format, NOT as a PDF document. If you submit in PDF it will not be able to be marked.**

***If you anticipate the need to apply for an extension, please read the rules on extensions in this Subject Outline before doing so.***

ASSIGNMENT 1 (10 marks)

Bob Broke runs a company which manufactures and sells computer equipment. He relates the following set of facts to you:

On 1 January Bob receives an email from Mike Jones which reads: “I offer to purchase 30 Toshiba Satellite laptops for $ 300 each, inclusive of GST, delivery and insurance”. In response, on 2 January Bob sent an email to Mike saying “I accept your offer, but the price would have to be $ 300 plus GST. On 3 January Mike sends an email back saying “No, I can't agree to that”. On 5 January Bob then sends an email saying “OK, I accept your offer of 1 January”, however when he sends the computers to Mike with an invoice for $ 9 000, Mike sends the computers back and refuses to pay for them, saying that he has purchased computers elsewhere.

On 10 January, Bob sends a letter to Tom stating “Please send me 200 Pentium 5 hard-drives at $ 50 each”. On 12 January Tom puts a letter into the post stating “OK – I will deliver the hard-drives before the end of the month. Bob subsequently finds that he no longer needs the hard drives, and on 14 January sends Tom an email saying “Please cancel my order of 10 January”. Tom’s letter reaches Bob on 15 January, and the hard-drives are delivered a few days later with an invoice for $ 10 000, which Bob refuses to pay.

Bob has a friend named Steve, who has done favours for Bob, such as looking after Bob’s cat when he (Bob) went on holiday. On 1 February, Steve says to Bob “I need a new computer for my travel agency”. Bob says “OK – you have been a real friend to me by looking after my cat, so in return I’ll give you a new computer”. Bob then changes his mind and says to Steve: “Sorry, mate, trading has been bad these last few weeks – I just can’t afford to give you the computers”.

Bob is thinking of buying a delivery van. He has been in negotiations with Capital Motors, whose sales manager is Mary. One Monday morning he sees a form sent by Mary in which she offers to sell him a Toyota Hilux 3000 automatic with airconditioning for $ 33 000. The top sheet of the form contains a line which says “I agree to the purchase of this vehicle as specified in this document” and with a space for a signature and date. Bob sets the document aside on his desk, and it soon gets mixed up with piles of other paperwork. Later during the day, he signs the form, thinking that it was the front page of another contract he had been sent by a supplier of microchips. He gives it to his office manager, Tim, and says “Send this by fax”. A few days later he receives a call from Mary asking him when he will pick up the vehicle. He tells Mary that he did not order a vehicle from her. When Mary tells him about the fax, he realizes his mistake and tells her that he had sent it by accident. She says “Too bad, we have a deal – I have already ordered another vehicle to replenish my stock”.

Assume that you are Bob’s legal adviser and that he has asked you for legal advice. Advise him as what contractual liability, if any, he has in the above circumstances, citing relevant statute and case law authority, using the ILAC format.

**Please check that you have complied with the rules contained in the Style Guide before you submit your assignment.**
Rationale
This assessment item will allow you to demonstrate your ability to

• engage in legal research;
• identify the legal issues arising out of novel factual situations, to analyse the applicable law and to differentiate between which rules are applicable and which are not and then apply the law to the problem;
• explain and summarise the applicable law in such a way as to create a report for a client which states what liabilities arise from novel factual situations

And more specifically

• your knowledge of the law of contract formation;
• your ability to undertake an assessment task relevant to the workplace and professional practice.
Marking criteria

CRITERIA HD DI CR P FL
Students are required to answer two problem type questions in order to demonstrate: To meet this level you will achieve a cumulative mark of 85-100%. A mark in this range indicates that a student: To meet this level you will achieve a cumulative mark of 75-84%. A mark in this range indicates that a student: To meet this level you will achieve a cumulative mark of 65-74%. A mark in this range indicates that a student: To meet this level you will achieve a cumulative mark of 50-64%. A mark in this range indicates that a student: At this level you will obtain a mark of 0-49%. A mark in this range indicates that a student:
Identification of relevant legal issues

Comprehensive coverage and identification of all legal issues, which are formulated with consideration of all contextual factors .
Correctly identifies legal issues and formulates them with consideration of contextual factors connected to relevant law, with only minor errors. Identifies and correctly formulates most major legal issues connected to relevant law. Identifies some legal issues. May or may not formulate them correctly. Considers links to relevant law. Identifies no relevant issues or only a few of them. Some of these may be unclearly formulated. Considers few contextual factors of relevant law.
Explanation of law and citation of relevant legal authority

Provides a complete explanation of the law, justified by relevant statute and case law authority, with no errors. Discussion identifies key rules of law, stating relevant principles and shows insight in identification and discussion of potentially hidden issues. Research of relevant legal authority shows a breadth of investigation through detailed analysis and discussion. Provides a comprehensive explanation of the law with few errors, substantiated by relevant case and statute law stating relevant principles.. Research of relevant legal authority shows a breadth of investigation through detailed analysis and discussion.. Provides a substantial explanation of the law but with some errors, substantiated by significant legal authority in the form of statute and case law. Provides a basic explanation of the law, but with significant errors, substantiated by some legal authority. Provides incorrect or limited explanation of the law using no, or only a limited range of, authority.
Application of legal principles to the facts

Applies the law to the facts so as to reach a correct conclusion on all issues, with no errors. Argument discusses linkages between facts and the law and considers counter-arguments, evaluating the impacts of applying the law to the situation considering a broad range of factors that may affect the application. Conclusion draws together advice for client. Applies the law correctly to the facts so as to address all issues, with only minor errors. Argument discusses linkages between facts and the law, evaluating the impacts of applying the law to the situation considering factors that may affect the application. Conclusion draws together advice for client Applies the law correctly to most issues arising from the facts, but with some errors. Argument discusses application of the law. Conclusion summarises advice for client. Makes a basic attempt to apply the law to the facts, but applies wrong law and / or contains significant errors in the application. Argument summarises application of the law. Advice to client is incomplete. Paper does not correctly apply law to the facts and / or applies incorrect law. May be descriptive, rather than putting forward a reasoned argument.
Compliance with the Style Guide and overall structure.
Uses Style Guide comprehensively, accurately and consistently. Uses ILAC model. Extremely well structured and organised, with one main argument introduced per paragraph, supported by well-written supporting sentences. Uses Style Guide accurately and with only minimal errors.
Uses ILAC model. Well structured, with one main argument introduced per paragraph. Adequate use of Style Guide, with some errors or lapses. Uses ILAC model and is clearly structured. Limited or inconsistent use of Style Guide. Some attempt at use of ILAC model and at structuring of answer.
Poor, inconsistent or inaccurate use of Style Guide. Poorly structured. Inadequate or no use of paragraphs. May have disregarded the ILAC model.
Written expression and editing. Uses appropriate academic writing which is formal, impersonal and which contains no spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Paper demonstrates careful proofreading. Uses appropriate academic writing which is formal, and impersonal with only very minor spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Paper demonstrates careful proofreading. Uses appropriate academic writing which is formal and impersonal, with a few spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Paper demonstrates evidence of proofreading. Significant spelling, grammar and punctuation errors but the paper is readable and demonstrates some attempt at proofreading. Poor grammar, spelling and/ or punctuation. Paper gives no evidence of having been proof-read.

Presentation

Please comply with the following Style Guide:

1. Do not re-state the question.

2. Use in-text referencing. Do not use footnotes.

3. Names of statutes should be italicised, and followed by the jurisdiction not in italics, for example: Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth). Note the abbreviation for ‘Commonwealth’ is ‘Cth’ not ‘Cwlth’.

4. The names of the parties must be italicised, but the citation must not, for example: Smith v Jones (1967) 345 CLR 34.

5. An in-text reference to a book should be structured as follows: (Latimer, 2010, p. 75). There is no need to put the author’s initial. Note the positioning of brackets, stops and commas. You use ‘pp.’ only if referring to more than one page. If you are referring to a book with more than one author, the in-text reference would be as follows: (Smith et al, 2002, p. 78).

6. An in-text reference to the subject's Modules should be structured in brackets as per the following example - obviously you will alter the reference depending on the subject, year of study and Module number : (CSU LAW220 Modules, 2015, Topic 7).

7. Do not start a new line simply because you are starting a new sentence.

8. Be careful of apostrophes: director's = of a director, directors' = of many directors, directors = many directors. Also particularly prevalent is confusion between its (it possessive) and it's (contraction of -it is-).

9. The following words always start with a capital letter: Commonwealth, State, Act, Bill, Regulation, Constitution, Parliament. Do not unnecessarily capitalise other words.

10. One should not use terms such as can't, won't, don't and shouldn't, neither should one use -ie- and -eg- in formal writing.

11. A sentence must always begin with a full word and a capital letter – so a sentence would start ‘Section 55 says…’, not ‘S 55 says…’ or ‘s 55 says…’. The abbreviation for 'section' in the middle of a sentence is 's'.

12. Start each paragraph on a new line, and leave a clear line gap after the preceding paragraph.

13. You must put page numbers on your assignment.

14. Quotations and excerpts from legislation should be indented from the rest of the text in a separate paragraph. The text in quotations should not be in italics.

15. You must end your assignment with a bibliography that is divided into three separate parts, listing statutes, cases and books / articles / on-line Modules.

16. A listing of a book in a bibliography should appear in accordance with the following format: Latimer, P (2010). Australian Business Law, 29th ed, North Ryde: CCH. If listing a book with multiple authors, do so as follows: Heilbron, G, Latimer, P, Nielsen, J and Pagone, T (2008). Introducing the Law, 7th ed, North Ryde: CCH.

17. When listing statutes at the end of your assignment you should conform to the format: Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth). List the statute only once – you do NOT list individual section numbers relied on. You should not list textbooks as the source of Acts – the Act itself is its own source.

18. When listing cases conform to the format: Gordon v Richards (1976) 123 CLR 32.

19. When listing article conform to the format: Jones, J 'The new analysis of law' (2010) 4 Journal of Recent Law 34.

20. When listing CSU Modules conform to the following format: CSU LAW220 Modules.

21. Make sure that your sentences are grammatical – it may be useful to read your assignment out loud if you have any doubts about this.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL LOSE MARKS IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY WITH THIS STYLE GUIDE. I WILL REFERENCE NON-COMPLIANCE BY ANNOTATING YOUR ASSIGNMENT “2”, “5” ETC TO INDICATE WHICH OF THE ABOVE RULES NUMBERED
1 – 21 YOU HAVE BREACHED