Question

Fiona owns and operates 'Fiona's Futons' (an importer of bedroom furniture and accessories located in Fremantle, Western Australia). Fiona ordered 20,000 queen size futon mattresses from Jaki, a sole trader and exporter of mattresses located in Yokohama, Japan. The mattresses were to be delivered to Fiona's business premises in two instalment shipments of 10.000 mattresses each: The first instalment on board The Pacifica in July (the July shipment) and the second on board The Oceania in November (the November shipment). The parties have incorporated a clause into their contract that the law of Australia (or Western Australia, as applicable) shall be the governing law should a dispute arise.

The following issues arose:

1: The July shipment contained only 8,000 mattresses (instead of the contracted 10,000 mattresses).

Discuss one principle (pertaining to one source) of law Fiona may be able to rely upon to obtain a remedy. Also briefly outline possible remedies, if any.

Answer 1

The most important thing to determine in case of Breach of contract is the type of Breach under Law. if one of the key element of the contract not being provided or undertaken as agreed, then it will covered under " Material Breach of Contract". generally, upon the occurance of material breach, the contract will be deemed to have ended and the party who has suffered from the breach will be in a position to claim remedies, including damages.

Here in this case, Fiona ordered 10,000 mattresses from jaki to be delivered in july, but shipment contained only 8000 mattresses. So, jaki has not fulfilled one major term of the contract. Here, fiona can sue to jaki

a) for specific performance or

b) sue for damages

in those cases, if damages awarded are not enough to the compensation for the breach of contract, then fiona may want specific performance. in that case, jaki has to deliver the remaining mattresses.

if fiona wants to sue for damages then the court may award damages to compensation to the aggreved party for the loss they suffered due to non delivery of the mattresses to its customers.