QUESTION 1
Liddy Bindu lives in a remote Indigenous community. She had leased a shop in Yarrabah, Cairns where she ran a 'Native Food and Herbs Café for the local community. Liddy is now 70 years old, suffers from poor eyesight, speaks an Aboriginal language and understands limited English. Bob Shifty, Liddy's landlord, knowing of Liddy's age, medical conditions, and limited English, presents Liddy with a new lease contract for 'Native Herbs & Tea Café, insisting that she sign the new lease and return it to him tomorrow. When Liddy protests that she needs more time to look over the document, Bob tells her that her original lease has run out and that the rental and other conditions of the new lease are exactly the same as the prior lease. Bob doesn't recommend Liddy seek separate legal advice regarding the new lease. Rather, he threatens her that if she doesn't sign the new lease immediately he will rent the shop to another tenant. Liddy signs the new lease. However, its conditions, including the rental payable, are significantly different from her prior lease and substantially favour Bob.
Liddy was concerned about the safety and cleanliness of the crockery used for serving food and drinks. She bought a pack of dishwashing liquid 'Kleen-Up' for use in the Café. Kleen-Up is manufactured and distributed by Avon Ltd located in Sydney. It was sold by a door-to-door sales representative of Avon Ltd. It has been selling a pack of 'Kleen-Up' at a normal price with a leaflet that says, 'Fantastic new product - very soft and mild on hands - no gloves needed - your dishes will love it!' The packaging only showed a picture of a bottle of Kleen-Up held by a smiling lady surrounded by full of sparkling dishes and appliance. Liddy's daughter Lottie who casually helps in the Café developed a severe skin rash on her fingers and hands after using the dishwashing liquid.
(a) Advise Liddy as to whether Bob Shifty has breached the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).What remedies (if any) are available for Liddy under the ACL?
(b) Advise Lottie if she has an action against Avon Ltd for her injuries under the Australian Consumer Law. What remedies (if any) are available for Lottie under the ACL?
In your answers, DO NOT discuss liability under the law of contract, and the law negligence.
QUESTION 2
Mrs Lena Breitenfeldt was attending the Wondertown Junior Cricket Club (WJCC) for the first time since moving from Germany, to watch her grandson play his first cricket match. She arrived at dusk, having walked 500 metres from the RSL club, where she previously met with friends for an early dinner to celebrate her 72nd birthday. During the match, Lena left the spectator seats and walked down a narrow path leading behind the clubhouse. After 3 glasses of wine with dinner, she was in need of the bathroom and was looking for the Ladies toilets.
Earlier that day, Pete had been tidying up the surrounding gardens and paths at the Cricket Club. As the Groundsman, it was Pete's job to fix the gardens as they were getting untidy and the club liked to keep things neat. The Cricket Club was very proud of their reputation in the community and had recently won several awards due to their environmentally conscious activities. Pete had been in the process of installing water-saving sprinklers when he received an important call and had to leave for the day. He had already swapped the lightbulbs in the outdoor lights overlooking the surrounding paths with some energy saving globes that he came across in the storage room. The outdoor lights were set to turn on automatically at 5pm so Pete decided not to test the lights after changing the bulbs.
Pete was in a hurry to leave and was more concerned with the risk posed by leaving the semi-attached sprinkler hoses across the path. Pete found some cardboard and quickly scribbled 'DANGER' with an arrow pointing ahead, and then placed it at the start of the path as a warning sign.
Lena noticed the sign as she entered the path but could not read out all the letters. The energy saving globe bulbs Pete installed were for 'indoor use only' so the external lights failed to turn on at 5pm, leaving the paths and surrounding area very dimly lit. As Lena walked down the dimly lit path, she tripped over a length of sprinkler hose and landed heavily on her right arm, fracturing her elbow and wrist.
Due to her right-handed injuries, Lena has been unable to write and cannot complete her extreme crossword challenge from the newspaper each morning and also play lawn bowls. To avoid boredom, she began searching the internet for extreme crossword puzzles which could be completed online with her left hand. Lena was confident that she would do crossword puzzles very well with her right hand. Whilst she did win at first, she lost all other puzzles, it has since developed into an addiction and she has to date lost $40,000 from online gambling.
(a) Advise Lena whether she can sue Wondertown Junior Cricket Club (WJCC) under the tort of negligence, and if so what damages she may recover. Make reference to relevant case law and the Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) in your answer.
In your answer, DO NOT discuss liability under the law of contract, vicarious liability, or sections 18-29 of the Australian Consumer Law (Cth).