PART I – (50% of the total mark)
Question One:
In a civil law system, a judge merely establishes the facts of a case and applies remedies found
in the codified law. As a result, lawmakers, scholars, and legal experts hold much more
influence over how the legal system is administered than judges. However, in a common law
system judges play a more active role in the administration and creation of law.
Explain the role of precedent in common law systems. Do judges in commons law systems ‘make law’ or are they applying law that already exists?
As a guide, the length of your submission should be approximately 800 words.
PART II– Participants must answer this question (50% of the total mark)
Question:
Edward owns a small business which sells office supplies to customers. He went to Dunham Electrics LLC, a wholesale electrical store in order to buy all-in-one printer copier scanners, to sell. He explained to the sales assistant that he wanted to sell these, as part of his business.
The sales assistant assured him that their “Zenox Workcentre” would be a good purchase and that it was ‘top of the range. Although they were very expensive, Edward decided to buy 5 of them. After he paid cash for his purchases, he was handed a receipt.
The next day the purchases were delivered to his premises. The delivery man handed him a standard form document. and said that the sales assistant had forgotten to give it to him in the store the previous day. The document contained the following provisions which were printed in very small letters:
(i) Dunham Electrics LLC accepts no liability for any damage or injury howsoever caused while using their products;
(ii) Dunham Electrics LLC excludes any statutory obligations implied into this contract.
After Edward plugged in one of the machines later that day, the cable become overheated, subsequently damaging the electric circuits in the wall socket, making the wall socket unusable. Edward connected another of the machines to a different wall socket only to find the same thing happen to the wall socket. After exploring what the problem was Edward has discovered that power cables that have been supplied with the machines contain cheap inferior fuses and defective wiring which is causing them to overheat.
Further, when Edward was trying to remove one of the plugs from the wall, he suffered an electric shock because the wiring in the plug was not properly earthed. As Zenox Workcentres are imported from Japan, Dunham Electrics LLC should have ensured that the cables provided with these machines had plugs which were properly earthed and tested, before selling them.
Advise Edward.
Helpful Suggestions:
1) Start by defining what an exclusion clause is and explain how they are regulated
2) Secondly, explain the incorporation test and discuss if you think the term in the question above has been incorporated into the contract. If it is not incorporated, it is not effective. Substantiate your arguments with case law.
3) Thirdly, describe the construction or interpretation test. Discuss whether the clause above is clear, unambiguous and covers the damage which has occurred. Substantiate your arguments with case law.
4) Fourthly, outline the provisions of the UCTA 1977 which you think are appropriate to the question. Is the reasonableness test relevant? Where is the test found within the Act? Apply the reasonableness test to determine whether the exclusion clause is reasonable, substantiating your arguments with relevant case law.
