Fourth tutorial PDF

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The questions are included, highlighted and annotated and notes underneath that clearly identify legal problems applied to the scenario to answer the question effectively. There is also exam guidance at the end. All tutorial scenarios can be used as practice essays for final exam. Tutorials undertak...

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Foundations of Private Law Tutorial Four

Reading: You have already covered much of the reading for this tutorial. Please read the sections of Lee cited in the handout relating to the law of Delict in advance of the tutorial.

The first problem has elements relating to the law of Property, Contract, Delict and Unjustified Enrichment. This problem is slightly more complex than the sorts of problems you might be given in the exam. 1. Bertie’s aunt Agatha has just died, and he is her sole heir. She owned a large estate, and Bertie honestly believes that part of that estate includes a tumble-down cottage called “Worcester’s End”. Bertie takes possession of the cottage and the rest of his aunt’s estate. Two and a half years later, Bertie begins to do up the cottage, when his friend, Jeeves, suggests that it might receive a good price from a developer on the open market. Bertie decides to sell the cottage to his friend, Henry. Henry and Bertie conclude a valid contract of sale for the cottage, with the price paid to be £100,000. While visiting Bertie, Henry also sees a valuable painting in Agatha’s collection. Henry decides that he would like to buy it, and Bertie agrees to sell it for £10,000. Henry then takes possession of the painting and of the tumble-down cottage. Over the next eight months, he extensively alters it and adds to it, turning a two-bedroom cottage into a six-bedroom house with four public rooms. The painting Henry bought from Bertie is placed loosely on the wall above the fireplace in the main reception room. Shortly after the work is completed, Henry is devastated to discover that the land on which the house is built in fact belonged to Agatha’s neighbour, Alfred Wimpole, although it seems that Agatha had been in possession of it for some time. On discovering the facts, Alfred decides to try to recover the land from Henry, but Henry refuses to give up possession. Henry is also now worried about whether or not he even owns the painting he bought from Bertie; he does not really trust Bertie anymore. He makes up a story saying that Bertie is not creditworthy, whereas in fact he is; when Bertie discovers this, he expresses immediate outrage to Jeeves, who suggests he should take legal advice. Advise Henry. -

Pay compensation for the fictious information spread about Bertie, can be prosecuted under actio iniuria claim for going after personality or something

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Get something back for the extensive work done to the house by putting unjustified enrichment claim against Albert, exceptio doli

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Give up the land, legally Albert’s because in rem is stronger than in personam, ownership of over possession

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Painting is not sufficiently attached to the wall; usucapio so Henry owns painting

2. Marcus is the good faith possessor of an orchard. He harvests the apples. He makes cider with half of the apples and sells the remaining half of the apples at market. He also sells the cider at market. He sells one bottle of cider to a famous connoisseur of the drink, who decides that he wants to sell Marcus’s cider in his chain of specialist cider shops. Marcus buys up more land and plants more apple trees, using seeds from the fruits harvested from the original orchard. He decides to go into business as a cider manufacturer. His reputation is such that sometimes people bring him apples of their own to make into cider for a price. Unfortunately, Marcus soon runs into difficulties, and demand outpaces what he can actually do; the result is that the quality of his product declines sharply. First, he sells a batch of cider, made with his own apples, which turns out to be of very poor quality. The buyer, John, is very unhappy, and is particularly unhappy because he served it to several guests, one of whom, named Douglas, became ill after consuming the cider. Second, Marcus manages to ruin some apples which one of his customers, Belinda, had provided for him to make into cider; he negligently leaves them outside, and they are eaten by some very hungry caterpillars. Belinda had already given Marcus money to make cider from the apples. Third, one of his customers, Fred, is so angry at the poor quality of the cider he buys that he goes to Marcus’s workshop to remonstrate with him. While waving his arms around angrily, he accidentally knocks over a cart laden with twenty full bottles of cider, ready for sale. This scares a dog running around outside, which is startled and proceeds to bite Marcus’s horse, to its injury. Finally, a year after all this began, it turns out that the original orchard did not belong to Marcus in the first place, but rather it belonged to Gaius. Upon discovering the truth, Marcus quickly harvests that year’s crop before Gaius can lay his hands on it. Marcus then starts to turn the crop into cider. Advise Marcus. -

He was good faith possessor, shouldn’t really be held accountable for the consumed fruits but he has to return the land expediently

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People began hiring out his services; locatio conductio operarum I mean idk don’t expect payment for the shit you are putting out, expect to be sued for fucking poisoning a guy goddamn

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Don’t expect a claim for that guy that knocked it over accidentally

The third question is an actual past paper question, from December 2016. 3. Mr Nye T Swatch gives Jon Snow a commission to travel north by sea to acquire a statue for him. Snow accepts the commission and leaves by boat. While travelling north he stops at a particular harbour and finds some Murano glass on sale in a shop that he particularly likes. The glass is owned by the shop-owner, Melisandre. Unfortunately, while inspecting the glass, and before concluding a sale, he is distracted by a large grey wolf walking past the shop. Jon Snow drops the glass, which shatters. Loss caused due to delict of damage to property. This scares the wolf, who is a pet belonging to Bran, who has not restrained him properly. The wolf then bursts into the shop and destroys more glass which is a new intervening act, breaking chain of causation which Bran allowed to happen, so Bran would be liable. Seeing the wolf, a man in the corner, Mr Clegg, screams and runs into a burning brazier, knocking it down and setting fire to some antique curtains (also owned by Melisandre). Jon Snow, who looks like he has seen a ghost, backs away and leaves, as Bran quickly gets the wolf back under control. As he leaves, Melisandre shouts after him, “You know nothing, Jon Snow; you’re liable to pay me damages!” In another market further north, he buys a very large stuffed crow and Mr Swatch’s statue. He consigns them both to a ship’s captain, Davos Seaworth. Later that day a storm blows up and both the statue and the crow are the only items on board thrown overboard to save the ship. As a result, the other cargo on board is saved. Advise Jon Snow, because he knows nothing. Note that you should not deal with the question of whether or not the wolf had (briefly) acquired the status of an unowned thing.

Exam guidance: Think about who has directly caused the accident; the answer to this will point to who is actually liable....