Question

QUESTION ONE

Mila, a travel consultant, was doing her shopping at the local supermarket, Buckleys. When walking in the milk and dairy section in Buckleys, Mila slipped on the floor and hit her knees on a trolley.

While on the floor, Mila looked at the bottom of her shoes and found some squashed cheese which had fallen from the refrigerated display shelves.

Ben, an employee of Buckleys, came to help Mila. Ben told Mila that he was on his tea break and didn’t have the time to clean up the cheese that had fallen onto the floor.

Mila admitted that she was not looking at the floor as she walked, and told Ben, “I was looking around for items to purchase”.

Due to her falling and hitting her knees on the supermarket trolley, Mila suffers from soft tissue injuries and is not able to sit or walk for a long time. Mila’s injuries have become worse due to her taking up binge eating as a means of dealing with her symptoms. Mila is claiming compensation for medical expenses, economic loss and domestic assistance.

REQUIRED:

Advise Mila as to whether she would be successful in negligence against Buckleys supermarket. Please explain fully, using relevant legal authority.

QUESTION TWO

On the 2^nd of March, Jack offers to sell his collection of Persian rugs to his friend Liam for $30,000 by telephone. This was considerably less than the $50,000 that Jack had advertised his collection for in the local newspaper. Liam asked for a little time to think it over and was told by Jack: “Sure, I will leave the offer open until Tuesday the 5^th of March”.

On Monday the 4^th of March, Liam sends Jack an email agreeing to buy the Persian rugs at the specified price subject to Jack’s assurance that the rugs were genuine, hand-made rugs.

Later that same Monday, Jack was approached by Zoe who offered to purchase Jack’s Persian rugs for $50,000 as advertised in the newspaper. Jack immediately accepted Zoe’s offer and then sent Liam a text message withdrawing his offer to sell the rugs to Liam.

Jack read Liam’s “agreement” email on Tuesday the 5^th of March and Liam read Jack’s withdrawal text message on Wednesday the 6^th of March.

REQUIRED:

Advise Jack whether he has an enforceable contract with either Liam or Zoe.

Answer 1

1. Mila can certainly be successful in claiming compensation from the supermarket. Stores have duty of care under the premises liability act.

Following points are in Mila's favour to claim the compensation

- It was clear that the slip was due to cheese on the floor. And Ben who is an employee of the supermarket agreed that he did not clean the floor because of his tea break.

- Mila has suffered soft tissue injuries & was unable to work for long time becase of this accident in supermarket.

Superrmarket might argue on following points to reduce the claim amount :

- Spermarket will argue that Mila had admitted that she was not looking on the floor. So it was her negliginece as well .

To this, Mila's answer would be that she is in the supermarket to purchase some things & obviously she is going to look at the items in shelf. If she keeps looking at the floor & walking then she would not have time to look at the Items in shelf . She is reasonable in believing that supermarket has enough care to asssure that the premises is free from hazards.

- Supermarket will argue that the injury worsoned because of Mila's binge eating. So supermarket can not pay compensation for the entire length of the period of recovery / joblessness.

Mila's answer would be that binge eating itself occured after the accident in spermarket. Its a direct consequence of the accident in supermarket & as such connected to it . ( Mila was not into binge eating before the accident ) . It's reasonable to have an emotional stress after such an accident. So compensation should not be denied / reduced for the binge eathing.

- Following things would have helped further for Mila's claim

1. If she had talked to Ben's manager immidiately after talking to Ben & registered a complaint.

2. If she had taken any photographs immidiately of the shop floor with the cheese on using her mobile

3. If she had got any witness'contact numbers who were thereby that time.

4. If she has obtained any CCTV camera recording of her slip & fall incident .

Neverthelss It's supermarket's responsibility to keep the premises customer friendly & iftfailed to do that .

Quesion 2 :

Under the contract law a offer needs to be definite & it needs to be communicated to be considered as a " Offer". If these eliments are missing then it will be only considered as an ' invitation to offer " but not as " offer".

In above case, Jack had communicated over phone to Liam about the type of commodity & price & also the date for which the discount is valid for . This was communicated to Liam in particular .

So this will be considered as an Offer under the contract law.

Liam commnicated his acceptance by email before 5th march ( that's the last date of validity) . But it was a conditional acceptance . Liam stated that he will accept provided that the rugs were genuine & hand made.

As this was a conditional acceptance, IT gave Jack choice to withdraw & Jack exercised that. So there was no contract between Jack & Liam .

( Date of acceptace does not come into the picture).

THe advertisement in newspaper is to a large public. Its an offer as well. Zoe had responded to the advertisemet given in newspaper & communicated in writing  her willingness to accept the offer. The acceptance was unconditional. Jack communicated back & agreed to sell. Hence there is a contract between Jack & Zoe.

THe key point is not Liam acceptance was conditional & that left Jack with an option to decline & Jack declined on that basis . Whereas Zoe's acceptance was unconditional.

THe dates of communication by Liam is irrelevant as the his acceptance was conditional.