Assignment Task:
Mary has lost her lamb. On Sunday, she ran an ad in the local paper offering $2,000 to anyone who has information that would lead to the return of her lamb. On Monday, as he was leaving his village store on a 4-day business trip, Jack saw a lamb behind some barrels in the alley behind the store. Since he was late, he scribbled a note with the directions and promised his stock boy Scott $50 to deliver the message to Mary. Scott, who is painfully shy but has a big crush on Mary, stuffed the note in his pocket and, in his panic about what he'd actually say to her, managed to forget to give it to her. On Tuesday, Jill was leaving the village store and spotted the lamb. She continued with her errands, and on her way home, she went by Mary's, but Mary was away. She wrote a note and stuck it under Mary's door.
Mary was despondent about her lamb and spent Tuesday night commiserating with her sister Mathilda, not returning home until Wednesday morning. Passing by the village store, however, she heard a little bleat and could hardly believe her eyes when she saw her beloved lamb standing in front of her. Nor did she notice that the lamb, hungrier than usual, ate Jill's note that was on the floor as they entered their house.
On Thursday, John remembered that he had seen a lamb at the village store earlier that week and hurried over to Mary's house, only to find the lamb already there. Mary met up with Scott a week later, and Scott confessed to her that he had forgotten to give her the note from Jack. In the meantime, Scott had spent $50 on candies and flowers for Mary, thinking he'd get it back from Jack.
Mary is happy about getting her lamb back. But now she hears about the story of Jack, Jill, and Scott, all of whom saw her lamb, or knew where it was, and tried to contact her about it. She and Scott have come to you for some advice: she wants to know if she might have to pay any of them the $2000, she had offered as a reward. Scott wants to know if he can collect the $50 Jack promised. And Mary wants to know if she may keep the candies and flowers. Based on your reading so far, who do you think legally deserves to be paid and why?
Consider some of the questions that might be relevant to this case before running your answer.
- Are the parties involved in this case required to perform their contractual duties in good faith? If so, what does good faith in contracts mean?
- For the sake of discussion, say Amir sent Mary a text message via his mobile but Mary, who was very depressed, did not open it until she found the lamb herself. Does she have to pay Noah? Do courts in Canada recognize texts message as binding contracts? Can you think of any relevant Canadian case law? You may want to have a quick look at the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 S.O. 2000.
- Say that Amir developed symptoms of COVID-19, and for this reason, he was not able to deliver the note in person. Does COVID-19 impact Amir's contractual Obligations, and if so, how?
- Is it possible to characterize Mary's deal as a Unilateral Contract? If so, could you tell us a bit more about this type of contract, preferably citing some relevant Canadian case law?