1. In 2017 in a burst of nostalgia to celebrate Canada’s 150^th Birthday the Nova Scotia Government decided they would print their own money to commemorate the role of Nova Scotia in the creation of Canada. The Premier of Nova Scotia, Stephen MacNeil, was featured on the $5 bill, Samuel de Champlain on the $10 bill, Donald Marshall on the $20 bill, and Viola Desmond on the $100 bill. When the Prime Minister of Canada heard about the new Nova Scotia money he said it was unconstitutional. Is it? Why/Why not?

 

Yes, the new Nova Scotia money was unconstitutional. According to the Federal Constitution, the Bank of Canada is the only institution legalized by the federal constitution to print money, determine monetary policy, and manage financial services. Hence, the government of Nova Scotia has no authority to decide on printing money.

2. Last night you invited your friend (who is also a classmate in CMLW 2201) to go to a movie with you. You both agreed to meet at the movie theatre. When you arrived you bought two tickets and waited for your friend but they never showed up? The next day you asked your friend to pay you for the wasted movie ticket. Your friend said “Forget it. We don’t have a contract!!” Is your friend correct? Why or why not?

 

Yes, my friend is correct. There was no legal contract between us. The elements of a valid contract, as per the law, include offer and acceptance. An offer must contain all the relevant and essential terms of the agreement. In this case, we did not agree on any terms of the contract; hence it was invalid.

3. Jim and Bob bought one lottery ticket each week for five years. Each paid half of the price of each ticket. Bob got tired of losing and told Jim he did not want to buy tickets anymore. Jim said “That is OK, if I win I will still give you half.” The next week Jim won the jackpot of $2,000,000. When Bob said to him, “You promised to pay me half if you won” Jim said “Tough, you did not pay a cent for the winning ticket.”

Does Bob have any hope of suing Jim under contract law for one-half the winnings? Why/Why not?

 

Bob does not have any hopes of suing Jim because of a breach of a promise. The violation is not enforceable by Court because although they were contributing half of the price for each ticket, at the time of the win, Bob had stopped buying tickets, and Jim contributed for the whole amount; therefore, not entitled to the share.

 

 

4. Saint Mary’s Art Gallery advertised a sale of art works on their website. Anyone wanting to buy something was instructed to email the gallery director at gallery.director@smu.ca. Ping emailed the gallery director saying she wanted to buy a particular painting of the McNally Building. The gallery director emailed her back telling her she could pick up and pay for the painting the next day. When Ping went to the gallery the next day the gallery director told her they had sold the painting to someone else.

But Ping thinks she has a contract. Does she? Why/why not?

 

No. Ping does not have a contract. The communication between Ping and Saint Mary’s Art Gallery was an agreement. A contract occurs when the product or service has been purchased. Although they had communicated, there was no assurance that Ping would pick up and pay for the painting as agreed.

5. Suppose you e-mailed an offer to sell your car to a friend. Now you want to revoke your offer. Would it be sufficient to simply leave a message on their voice mail?

 

As the offeror, I have the right to terminate the offer under various circumstances. The acceptable way is to communicate through e-mail. A voice mail does not provide enough time for callers to leave a more detailed message, and besides, it is not a formal way of communicating in contracts.

6. Blanktown University wrote Ping a letter promising that if she got more than 75 on the CMLW 2201 midterm she would be awarded a scholarship of $1,000. Ping got 80 on the midterm, but she also had a huge fight with the president of Blanktown who refused to award her any scholarship money. The president said there was no contract because there is no consideration. Is the president correct? Why or why not?

 

 

No. the president was not right because a consideration involves two people making a promise for something valuable in return. In this case, the contract was between Blanktown University and Ping and not the president. Blanktown University made the promise, and Ping acted for the promise.

 

7. Cases such as Rudder v Microsoft, other cases concerned with forming contracts where the communication between parties is instantaneous, and the Nova Scotia Electronic Commerce Act illustrate that judging whether or not someone has accepted an offer can be problematic when using electronic means of communication.

But such problems can be avoided. Explain one way the person making the offer can avoid such problems.

 

The offeror can request the offeree to convey their acceptance of the offer through a handwritten and signed letter. This proves that the offeree has received, read, and accepted the offer. This makes it easy for the person to offer the offeree to have surety of the offeror acceptance.

8. Abra recently passed her yoga instructor course. She successfully applied for a full-time job teaching yoga at Sun Yoga Studio on Inglis Street and signed an employment contract. One clause in the contract stated: “Abra will not open her own yoga studio within 1.0 kilometer of Sun Yoga Studio for two years after she stops working at Sun Yoga Studio.”

After one year of working at Sun Yoga Studio Abra quit and opened her own yoga studio nearby on South Street. Her new studio was only 0.5 kilometers away from Sun Yoga Studio. Many of Abra’s students at Sun Yoga Studio decided to take lessons at Abra’s new studio. Sun Yoga Studio calculated they were losing $2,000 per week because of Abra.

Sun Yoga Studio claimed Abra breached the contract they had with Abra.

What remedy is a judge more likely to award to Sun Yoga Studio? Why?

 

The Judge is supposed to reward Sun Yoga Studio with special damages compensation because of income loss. The ruling should demand Abra to pay for the damages as he had breached the terms of the contract with his former employer, which resulted in Sun yoga incurring losses.

9. A wedding planner had a contract to plan a white wedding for a happy couple. She had strict instructions that everything had to be white and – the flowers had to be white so she bought lilies; the food had to be white so she chose scallops, pasta, onions, cauliflower, haddock, and a white wedding cake with vanilla ice cream; she bought white wine; the groom’s suit was white; the wedding dress was white, and the limousine to take the bridal party to the wedding had to be white.

But when the limousine arrived to pick up the bridal party immediately before the wedding, the colour of the limousine was black.

Did the wedding planner breach a condition or a warranty? Why?

 

The wedding planner breached a condition because a condition is an arrangement that should be present when another event happened. The terms and obligations were that everything at the wedding was white, but the limousine was black, and therefore the conditions were not satisfied.

10. Chris, who is an engine mechanic, purchased a new machine to diagnose problems with engines from Engine Diagnostics Ltd. The contract stated it would be delivered October 1. Immediately before signing the agreement Chris and the salesperson for Engine Diagnostics Ltd. discussed the fact that Chris had to have the machine on October 1 or else he/Chris would lose a contract with Saint Mary’s University to service and fix all their generators.

However, the machine was not delivered until November 1 and Chris lost the contract with Saint Mary’s University.

Chris is certain he is entitled to sue Engine Diagnostics Ltd. for breach of contract. The one thing he is not sure about is whether or not the potential income he lost due to losing the Saint Mary’s contract is remote. Is it? Why/why not?

 

The potential income that Chris lost to Saint Mary's contact is remote. Although Chris will sue Engine Diagnostics limited for a breach of contract, there is no guarantee that he will be compensated for the amount he lost to the agreement as this is far away concerning their contract.

11. Wood Supply Inc. had a contract with Harry to sell Harry the wood he needed to build a garage for $4,000. The contract stated that the wood is to be delivered to Harry on February 1^st. But on February 1, Plywood Inc telephoned Harry and said they would not be able to sell him any wood.

Harry did not immediately look for other suppliers who would sell him wood.

But on April 1^st Harry bought the wood he needed from Home Builders for $5,000.

But if Harry had purchased the wood from another seller during the month of February he would have paid only $4,500.

Harry now wants Wood Supply Inc to pay him $1,000 to cover the additional cost of the wood he purchased from Home Builders.

Is Harry entitled to damages of $1,000 or should he have mitigated his losses? Why/Why not?

 

Harry is not entitled to the $1,000 damage compensation because he mitigated his losses. Plywood Inc. made an official communication with Harry on February 1st, but Harry did not look for other suppliers immediately; instead, he waited until April 1^st. If he had looked for other suppliers immediately, he would not have incurred the extra cost.

12. In January 2020 Zainab paid her tuition for the Winter semester at Saint Mary’s and she regularly attended her classes and completed assignments and wrote midterms.

On March 2 the University President made a surprise announcement stating that face-to-face classroom instruction would end immediately, but that all classes would continue on-line because of the serious danger to students’ health created by the Covid virus.

Zainab hated on-line courses and she did not want to take any courses on-line so she went to the Registrar’s Office and asked for her tuition payment to be refunded.

When the Registrar refused to refund her tuition payment she told them they had to because the contract is frustrated.

Is her contract with Saint Mary’s frustrated? Is she entitled to a full refund?

 

Yes, Zainab’s contract was frustrated, but in this case, it was a natural disaster, and the school was not liable for that. However, she is not entitled to any refund because the discussions were to be continued online, and she opted not to participate

13. Suzie paid Beth for ten hits of crack cocaine. Crack cocaine is illegal in Canada. Beth promised to deliver the cocaine to Suzie the next day. However, there was no sign of Beth or the cocaine the next day. Would Suzie be successful if she sues Beth for breach of contract? Why/Why not?

 

Suzie has the right to sue Beth for breaching their contract. But in this case, she will not be successful as both have violated the constitutional law by engaging in an illegal business. Both Suzie and Beth are liable for a criminal Act.