1. Norma is a reclusive but world-famous sculptor who handles all aspects of sculpting, advertising, sales and delivery herself. She has completed a sculpture of a politician made from abandoned hospital beds that she calls ‘The Idiot.’ It is the only one that will ever be made. She places an ad in The Guardian newspaper stating ‘My new sculpture is available for purchase for £1,000,000’ and proposes that interested buyers should contact her by letter in relation to any purchase.
On 1 January, Gareth sees the advertisement and writes to her offering £900,000. Norma, like many artists, is temperamental and writes back on 3 January to tell him she isn’t interested in selling to someone who values her work so little. Gareth responds by saying he wishes to accept her initial offer of the sculpture for £1,000,000 and will call around in seven days to pick it up.
Norma begins to regret putting the work up for sale, worrying that it won’t be seen by the public. As a result, on 2 January she writes to the Poncé Gallery in London saying that she will sell to them if they offer her £800,000. On the very same day, and without having seen Norma’s letter, the Poncé Gallery write to her offering to buy the painting for £800,000.
Eric likes what he sees of the sculpture in the advertisement. He writes to her on 1 January saying he accepts her offer to sell the sculpture at £1,000,000. Norma receives this on 4 January and is delighted. She posts a letter that very afternoon at 3pm to say that she is delighted to sell to him on those terms. However, half an hour later, Hank, a fabulously rich billionaire, rings her to say he will buy the sculpture for £2,000,000 as he wants his patronage of artists to get wide publicity. Norma is once more delighted, but tells Hank she is not in a position to conclude any deal until she speaks to another bidder.
She decides to ring Eric to cancel her acceptance of his offer. She vaguely remembers hearing about the concept of ‘revocation’ from her long-ago days of studying law, and is confident that as long as she can instantaneously communicate this to Eric before her letter arrives, a contract will not be complete.
Advise Norma about potential legal liabilities in relation to Gareth, the Poncé Gallery, Eric and Hank.
2. ‘The law has no consistent approach to the question of whether performance of existing legal duty can amount to good consideration’. Discuss in relation to any two of the following:
i) Publicly owed duties
ii) Duties owed to third parties
iii) Duties owed to same promisor
PAPER CODE: LAW 105 Page 2 of 3 CONTINUED
3. Klaus ran a diving school called Phoenix Divers. He had 10 employees who were all master divers. As the business was offering more and more night dives, Klaus went to a store called Dip ’n’ Divers to purchase 10 dive lights (one for each master diver). At the time he bought them, Klaus explained to the shop assistant (Gerard, a new employee who was in training) that he needed the dive lights for night dives so that his master divers could point out sea creatures at a distance and look into dark crevices. Gerard picked up the Sea Dragon Light and said “this will be perfect, it has a 10.5° narrow beam angle underwater for long range use and for pointing out sea life and looking into crevices”. Klaus bought 10 Sea Dragon Lights but 3 of them had a 45° beam angle and consequently were not suitable for long range use to point out sea life or to look into dark crevices. Klaus would like to return all 10 Sea Dragon Lights.
Advise Klaus as to whether or not he is able to return all 10 Sea Dragon Lights.
You should specifically consider whether or not there are any express or statutory implied terms that may assist him.
You do not need to consider terms implied in fact and terms implied in law for the purposes of this question.
Extracts from the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 have been provided in the Resit Assessment folder on VITAL. These extracts may be used to assist you in answering Question 3.
4. ‘To create a contract there must be a common intention of the parties to enter into legal obligations, mutually communicated expressly or impliedly.’
Rose and Frank Co v J R Crompton and Brothers Ltd [1923] 2 KB 261 per Atkin LJ
Critically discuss the extent to which (if at all) the need to establish an intention to create legal relations is recognised in English law.
