Case Study- Contract law

Question 3:

One day, Jay saw a banner hanging in front of her favourite cassette outlet in Alamanda which reads "BIG SALE! LATEST TOO PHAT'S ALBUM is up for GRAB WITH 50% Discount! LIMITED STOCK! HURRY HURRY! After reading it, Jay immediately jumped in the outlet and said she wanted that album at the said discount price. But to her disappointment, the shop owner said that the cassette is now sold at normal price. Can Jay sue the company for breach of contract? Discuss according to contracts ACT 1950 and relevant decided cases.

Answer:

In this case, the banner which hang in the shop is merely an invitation to treat the people who

just pass by the shop. If any person who is interested then they will come in and ask the price again.

This is not a legally binding contract yet due to there is not yet an offer and acceptance at the

beginning.

This case is similar to a previous case, Fisher Vs Bell, occurred in court before. The defendant

displayed flip knives in his shop window. During that period, flip knives were counted as a prohibited

items to sell or buy because of the increasing number of robbery cases. So, this defendant, the shop

owner was sued for selling the prohibited item. The defendant said that he was only showing the flip

knives to the public, but not to sell them to any party. He only displayed them to attract people to

see them, but not to buy them. Therefore, He was not offer these item as products for selling, and

even not an acceptance to sell who was interested to buy them. Since there was no offer and acceptance, therefore, this was not a legally

binding contract.Finally, the defendant was not found any guilty and penalties were not given.

In the case, Jay would have an interest to buy the cassettes in lower price as what the banner

said. Yet, the shop owner said that it was a past price and they are selling at a normal price. In this case,

Thebanner was just showed to attract people to come to the shop and ask for the price. But there

is no acceptance from the shop owner's willingness for selling the cassettes in low price to customers.

Therefore, It is similar to the Fisher Vs Bell case, the owner is merely displaying the item to attract customer,

but not yet agree to sell them. Therefore, It is not a legally binding contract, and even not breach of contract.

To make a conclusion, Jay should not sue the company due to the contract between the company and him is

not legally binding.

Law of Contract

There are few Terminologies in this topic "Law of Contract", I have to specify them and make them clear before going to deeper understanding.

Agreement- Both party agree on something with a gentleman shake hand from written or non-written form. It must also be you agree something that is agreed by someone. So that, we could say these parties's perspectives are tally. It can be a legally binding or not a legally binding.

Contract-Contact is a subset of agreement and it can also be defined as an agreement enforceable by law. This is the legally binding agreement which accurred between two individuals or parties. e.g. An airline company must comply their agreement with customer that if there is a flight delayed exceed 1 and half hour, the airline company must pay the compensation amount as what is in the contract. If there is a breach, customers have the right to sue the airline company.

Mostly of the contract are in the form of written and spoken; whereas, unwritten form would be based the cultural, norm, conduct and habit of a society.

Offer- This is an important element to form an agreement. one individual or party have to be proposing something that must signify the other's party willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything.

offer can be delivered in two ways:

expressed- in a written, spoken way.

implied - other than written and spoken. base on conducts, norms, cultural, etc.

There are two types of offer:

Bilateral:two specified parties involved. (1 to 1)

Unilateral:one party give an offer to the world at large.(1 to many)

Invitation to treat - It seems like an offer, but it is not actually an offer. It is an expression of willingness to negotiate and to invite people to come and give an offer.

The example of Invitation to treat that we see from daily live is displayed price tag of certain good in a shop. It invites people to come and see whether the price is reasonable. If the customer would like to buy it, he or she can just make an implied offer at the cashier or even ask for a discounted price.

Source of Malaysian Law

There are two sources that make up Malaysian law which are Written and unwritten law.

Sources of Written laws refers to:

-Federal constitution, the supreme law of Malaysia.

The federal of Malaysia which is made up by 13 states with a written constitution, e.g. Johor, Malaka, Negeri Sembilan, etc.

This is the highest constitution of Malaysia which enshrines the basic rights of the individual.

It means that the constitution must go through some procedures from parliament assembly, approved by Yang di-pertuan Agong and it become a written law in final. If it is not approved, it goes back to the procedures of parliament again, at least 2/3 of the total number of the member of legislature must agree with that, thereafter it is amended to be the written law to follow in Malaysia.

-State Constitution, the law to be applied in 13 states in the federal of Malaysia. Every state has its own constitution. The state constitution contains provisions which include the matters concerning the ruler of the state, the Executive council, the legislature, the legislative assembly,etc.

-Legislation, law enacted by a body constituted in Malaysia.

• Laws are enacted by parliament after 1946 and before 1957, called Ordinances.
• Laws made after 1957 are called Acts.
• Laws made in state legislative assemblies, called Enactments (Exclude Sarawak)
• Laws made in Sarawak state are called Ordinances.

-Subsidiary Legislation, it is important as legislation by parliament and State legislatures which is insufficient to provide law required to govern everyday matters. Subsidiary deals with the details about which legislature has neither the time nor the technical knowledge to enacts law. It is delegated by persons or bodies under power conferred on them by Acts of Parliament or enactment of state legislatures, e.g. Yang di-pertuan Agong, Minister, etc.

Sources of Unwritten law refers to:

-Principles of English Law that are only suitable to local circumstances.

-Judicial decisions by the superior courts, e.g. The supreme court, subordinate courts, etc.

Besides, Muslim law (syariah) refers to:

-It is only applicable to Muslims and from Syariah Courts. This is an important law since the majority religious groups are Muslims in Malaysia.

Doctrine of Stare Decisis:

-It holds that judges are bound to follow the decision made by other judges before they dealing with the cases with similiar fact.

Any cases that is in law suit, It must refer and review to the similar cases in the past before any judgement made.

Advantages of Doctrine of Stare Decisis: Since the cases are referring to the old similar cases to make a judgement, therefore it doesn't need to do double effort to study the cases anymore. It leads to high efficiency to judge one case.

Disadvantages of Doctrine of Stare Decisis: It is a must to trace one by one to look for the similiar cases. Thus, it consumes most time in searching.

Business Law - 2nd Feb 2010

What is law?

Law is a set of general rules is shared and recognised by a certain community or society in a certain bounded geographical area.

There are some laws commonly practised almost in every nation. On the other hands, there are also some laws that are only applied for a nation, because the law applied is only suitable for a nation. For instance, Singaporean law may not be executed in Malaysia, because Malaysia has its own cuture and different perspective to look over some events, for example, prohibition of chewing gum in Singapore, yet, you can eat chewing gum in Malaysia.

In a conclusion,every country may practise different belief and custom. So, each country set the rules that are only applied in its country area.

Why do we need these rules to regulate our behaviour?

We always say that every game has its own rules to follow. Same goes to every country, law is an instrument needed in order to limit our behaviour and protect ourselves from in term of physical, reputation, right and etc.

Classification of law

Law has been classified into 2 types. One of them is Public law, the other one is Civil Law.

The differences between these two types of law are Public law concern about matters between government and individual. If a person violate the law which can make some others into damgages. he or she is charged a sentence in the the court of public law, the possible final outcome would only be punishment or free, e.g. fine, imprisonment, public service and etc.

Civil law or private law more concerns about matters which are related to the right and the duties of individuals amongst themselves. If a person make someone into losses. This person can be charged in the civil court, the final outcomes would be compensation to the victim.

More on edited... See you few days later!