The Salient Case Law or Statutory Law Analyses – Law Assignment Help

Student Questions
Please post any question you have in our ASSESSMENT Discussion Forum on LMS. The teaching team will NOT answer any questions via email and if you post in the wrong forum. Also, if you are asking a question that can be answered by reading all the instructions carefully, we will not answer it.

Learning Objectives Assessed
This assessment task is designed to test your knowledge in the formation and express terms of a contract. It will require you to analysis a factual situation, apply legal principles and come to a conclusion as to what the client is entitled to.

Part 1: To design or not to design?
You are interested in law and technology and are thus undertaking a double degree in law and applied information technology and have a small IT consultancy on the side. Your fellow student Mae is also studying law and design asks you for some help. She wants to create a website for her design ideas to get attention to her design ideas. ‘So, would you be able to help me create the website? I want it as a platform to showcase some of my work that I have done here at university, show what inspires me etc. It should look professional and I want to be able to expand on this later on.’ You answer ‘Hey, that is a brilliant idea, you are such a creative person and of course I will help you out.’ Mae’s response ‘But of course I do not want to take advantage of your expertise, so what about I pay you $1,000 for your time?’ You are hesitant ‘Are you sure? After all you are my fellow student! But payment would be great because it might take a bit of time. 

We need to discuss what you want, create a landing page and some further content pages, talk about search engine optimiser etc. So I take it – a job like this would usually cost much more but it will also help me with my IT consultancy to get some work done. How does that sound?’ Mae agrees ‘That is great – it is a deal!’ You both beamingly shake hands on the deal. You the go ahead and start designing a fabulous website for Mae, indeed she likes it so much that she asks you to design an online shop for the website as well. You don’t commit to anything on the online shop as Mae was extremely demanding and expected to be at her call 24/7 to work on ideas. You just finish the website and ask Mae for the money. Mae looks at you in surprise ‘And here I thought as my fellow student you are my friend! You are not getting anything as you did not design my online shop!’ You respond ‘I never agreed to the online shop and we had only an agreement for the website – so can I please have my money?’ Both of you insist to be correct, after all, you both studied law!

Instructions
Mae refuses to pay and it looks as if you are you own first client so what is your advice to yourself on
a. claiming the $1,000 for the website? Note that an independent consultant would have at least charged the same amount for the work required on the website. 10 points
b. Mae’s request that you also design the online shop?  

Part 2: To lease or not to lease?
You decide to use your knowledge to a different purpose and instead of helping your ‘fellow students’ you manage to get a summer clerkship at a up and coming new law firm specialising in IT & Law. You are sitting in the funky open plan office with three other lucky law students who managed to secure a clerkship when a senior partner, Sarah, comes into the office. ‘Which of your youngsters is the one who is also interested in IT and was the one who mentioned the problem with her friend and the design of a website in the interview?’ You raise your hand. ‘Great,’ says Sarah. ‘I’ve got a little question here that might be up your alley again.’ She places a file onto your desk, tells you ‘Let me know if you have any problems’ and wanders out again. You take the file and start reading.

The client is Bill, an IT reseller, who leased a shop within Mainsfield’s shopping centre for five years. The shopping centre is obviously owned by Mainsfield. The negotiations were long but at the end a comprehensive written document containing the negotiated terms of the lease was prepared by Mainsfield’s legal department and forwarded to Bill for signature. Prior to signing the written document Bill had some doubts whether he should sign the agreement after all. He was worried what would happen if another IT shop would open in the centre. He raised this problem with Xavier, Mainsfield’s centre manager, and Xavier assured him that the company would not, during the currency of the lease, permit any of the other shops in the shopping centre to be leased as an IT shop. Immediately upon receiving Xavier’s assurance, Bill signed the lease. However, there was no term included in the lease placing any limitations on Mainsfield in relation to the leasing of other shops, and in particular an IT shop, in the shopping centre.

Instructions
a. Unfortunately, Mainsfield leased now one of the shops to Maeve, the owner of another IT reseller. Bill now wants to know whether he could have relied on the Xavier’s statement and if Mainsfield has breached the terms of any contract. Please make sure that you look at every possible contract for this question. 

b. Sarah wants to really test your understanding and included a note ‘So, would your advice change in anyway if the written lease included a clause that stipulated that the lease expressed the entirety of the agreement between Mainsfield and Bill?’