Legal Case Analysis: Family Law, Oral Contract, Food Poisoning Laws, Consumer Protection Rights Essay.

Issue and rule for each case

1.Tom was a successful businessman in his late 50s who has worked hard all his life to build a well-known financial planning company with over S50 million dollars' worth of funds under management. However. Tom was still single as he had no time to font any meaningful relationship due to his extremely long working hours. 

Longing for a companion to spend time with. Tom turned to online dating and met Susan. an attractive young model in her mid-20s from Eastern Europe. They quickly fell in love and Tom asked Susan to many him and promised to bring her to Australia. give her a house to live in. a car to drive and keep her safe. 

A week before the wedding as Susan's family and friends started to arrive in Australia for their grand wedding. Tom asked her to sign an agreement which would leave her with just $100,000 in the event of a divorce, or else he was going to cancel the wedding and send her back overseas. Reluctantly. Susan signed the agreement and a happy wedding was able to go ahead which was enjoyed by everyone who attended. 
Unfortunately the relationship between them broke down after five years and Torn refitted to give any of his fortune to Susan other than the $100.000 they had agreed. 

Advise if the agreement signed by Susan was valid. 

2.Steve was in the market for a new car when he came across an advertisement placed on the intemet by Jason for the sale of his 2016 two door sports car. 

Steve went to see the car in person on three separate occasions, and spent a total of four hours inspecting the car in detail from top to bottom and told Jason that he would have bought the car if only it had a turbo engine, tinted window and leather seats as it was the exact model he had been searching for. 

After hearing Steve's comments, Jason then spent $50,000 installing a turbo engine, tinted window and two new leather seats in his car. However when Jason called Steve two weeks later about what he had done, Steve told him that he was no longer interested in buying the car. 

3.Carl was a keen weekend fishing man and a novel sushi chef whose best friend Harry loved Japanese cuisine and would often get fresh catches from him. 

The two of them went fishing together one weekend when Carl caught a giant fugu fish and made sashimi from it. Despite knowing the fish was poisonous and should only be prepared by a skilled chef (which Carl was not!), Harry nevertheless ate the sashimi straight away because he was extremely hungry. 

Unfortunately Harry became sick and spent the next two weeks in the hospital after eating the poisonous fish that was not properly cleaned by Carl. 
Advise if Carl was negligent and whether any defence was available to him. 

4.Betty was a huge Apple fan so when she learned that the new iPhone 8 was being released in September 2017, she immediately placed an order after seeing on the Apple website that the new phone would come with a high performance, 12 MP camera, 5x digital zoom and optical imaging stabilisation. 

Betty was extremely excited the day the new phone was delivered to her. However her excitement quickly turned into disappointment when she realised the camera on her new phone was only capable of 3x digital zoom and the battery would not last for more than three hours. 
Advise if Betty has any rights under ACL. 

Issue and rule for each case

Issue

The court is likely to rule that the prenuptial agreement signed by Susan was invalid because: Steve and Susan entered into a marriage prenuptial agreement on the grounds that upon divorce, Steve was to pay only $100, 000 in settlement. Steve presented the agreement a week to their wedding. Susan’s relatives had travelled far and wide thus reluctantly signed the document.

  In defining marital property, the court will uphold the validity of the prenuptial if: the agreement was created unfairly. In order to protect Stave’s financial interest, he opted for a prenuptial agreement. However, before signing a Prenuptial, one should be aware of the legally binding quotes in a valid situation. In this case study, tom asks Susan a week before the wedding to sign up a prenuptial agreement or else he was going to call off the wedding.

Steve’s position as a successful business and that he met Susan online places him in a tricky position. Despite that he wants to marry Susan, he must consider protecting financial interests in the event of a divorce. In order to establish whether the Prenuptial was valid, it is important to consider the conditions and scenarios under which the Prenuptial was signed. To begin with, a Prenuptial should be written and signed by the parties involved (Granberg 2014). If that is not the case, then the agreement was not properly executed and was signed under duress (Granberg 2014).

Conclusion

In this case, Susan had little choice but to sign the Prenuptial because her family had traveled from abroad to come attend her wedding. Secondly, she had little time (one week) to decide whether she was comfortable or Steve was to cancel the wedding. As such, under such conditions, it is safe to argue that the Prenuptial was not valid.

In the second case, Steve may have entered an oral contract by agreeing to buy a car from Jason, only if Jason made the preferred changes that Steve had suggested.

The considerations of an oral contract comprise of an offer, acceptance of the offer and the consideration (Poole and Shaw-Mellors 2017). Since this case is a subject of legal proceedings, it is unlikely that courts to uphold agreement if the important elements are not satisfied. Despite that Jason may provide sufficient elements for this case, it may be difficult to overcome the burden of proof.

Where he alleges the existence of an oral contract, Jason has a task of providing that the assertion is indeed satisfactory to the court. This can be hard where the only existing record is verbal agreements or phone calls. In the event where a party fails to do their obligations under a contract, without any lawful excuse they are said to have breached the contract. The innocent party has a right to terminate the contract or sue the defaulting party (Poole and Shaw-Mellors 2017). However, for them to have a valid case it is important to provide substantial proof that shows that there was an agreement between both parties. It is also important to note that documentary evidence is more reliable as it suppresses here say claims.

Application of the rule to the case

Conclusion

In this case, Jason has to prove himself in court by establishing that Steve breached their contract.

In theory, it is possible to sue those responsible for food poisoning. As per the law, a personal injury lawsuit may help to recover compensation for the medical bills and other losses (Resnik 2015).

However, it is important to consider that food poisoning lawsuits usually provide a well-documented account of the food contamination supply. In this case, both parties were involved in getting the food even though it Harry who prepared it.

For this case to succeed, one has to provide that the source of the contaminated food. Although the food poisoning law is not special when it comes to suing individual persons, the lawsuit must prove the person legally responsible for the damage. Despite Carl knowing that the fish was poisonous and that he was not a skilled chef, he went ahead and prepared it. As a result, Harry suffered food poisoning.

Conclusion

In this case, because Harry suffered severe injuries that led to his hospitalization, and then it is most likely that he can make the lawsuit financially worthwhile.

Issue

 Under consumer law, Betty has right to return the phone because it was not described for the purpose she bought it for.

As per the Australian consumer law, the consumer rights are also called consumer guarantees (Taylor and McNamara 2014). These guarantees include the right to replacement or refund, compensation for damages, rights to repair as well as a right to cancel faulty service. As such, if the product or service one buys fails to meet the guarantees made to the consumer, one has a right to ask for a repair, refund, or even replacement. However, it is important to consider that the remedy is reliable on whether the issue is minor or major. Betty was anticipating for a high performance, 12 MP cameras, 5x digital zoom. Instead, what she got was a 3x digital zoom and short serving battery.

Goodwill Return Policy: Most retailers provide the consumers with a return policy that has an exchange, credit note or even refund for their products. In case the phone was bought online or by mail, then the consumer has additional rights under the consumer contracts regulations (Taylor and McNamara 2014). However, it is important to consider that one can only return if the goods bought are non-faulty. Therefore, since Betty’s only concern is that functionality, then it is possible for her to ask for a refund. On the other hand, it is worth pointing out that not all shops have a return policy.

According to the provision of the Consumer Rights Act, one has a right to claim a refund if the product is faulty (Taylor and McNamara 2014). However, this automatic refund has a 30-days’ time frame or else you can give the retailer time to repair or replace. In this case, Betty has to provide proof of receipts that she bought the phone. Before making online purchases, it is important to find out from the customer sales service about the return policy (Taylor and McNamara 2014). This is because some retailers may not have a return policy and in other cases, the retailers only pay attention to faulty products.

Conclusion

Therefore, Betty has a claim if: the retailer has a return policy and if she has receipts to confirm the purchase.

References

Granberg, R.S., 2014. Three Logical Arguments for Divorce Settlement. Fam. Advoc., 37, p.20.

Poole, J., Devenney, J. and Shaw-Mellors, A., 2017. Contract Law Concentrate: Law Revision

and Study Guide. Oxford University Press.

Resnik, D.B., 2015. Food and beverage policies and public health ethics. Health Care

Analysis, 23(2), pp.122-133.

Taylor, D. and McNamara, N., 2014. The Australian consumer law after the first three years-is it

a success?. Curtin Law and Taxation Review, 1(1), pp.96-132.