Case Study

Peter advertised widely in the media, offering various subscription deals to ‘Vision’, his politics magazine. One deal provided a subscription for three years and required payment of £100 to be made by 30 April. Orders received after that date would be charged at £150. Ray sent an order with a cheque for £100, which he posted on 25 April. His order was not delivered until the afternoon of 30 April because of a postal delay. It was then too late to put the cheque into the bank. Peter processed the order and banked Ray’s cheque the next day, but would not supply any magazines until Ray paid a further £50.

Sara paid £75 for a two-year subscription but, after 13 months, was informed that unexpected increases in costs made it absolutely necessary to charge an extra £15. Peter refused to send any more magazines until the additional payment was made.

Tom wrote some book reviews for ‘Vision’. A few months later, Peter told Tom that he could have a free, one-year subscription to ‘Vision’, in recognition of the reviews he had written. However, Peter did not send Tom any magazines.

Task:

Write a commentary and analysis of the contract law implications in the case study.  You must use case law to provide evidence for the points that you make.

You should try to include most of the following:

• A discussion of the extent to which each of the requirements of a legally binding contract between Ray and Peter.
• An assessment of whether Ray owes the extra £50 to Peter.
• An assessment of Peter’s legal rights/ duties in respect of Sara, regarding the extra £15 charge.
• A discussion of the extent to which each of the requirements of a legally binding contract between Peter and Tom are satisfied.
• An assessment of Peter’s legal rights/duties in respect of Tom.
• Mention should be made in each situation of any remedies that might be appropriate.

Word count 500 words +/-

You must:

• use Arial font, size 12 
• use double line spacing
• have 2.5cm margins down the left and right of the page
• insert a footer to include page numbers, your name and student number
• upload your work in Word format into the appropriate ‘drop box’ on Canvas.
• complete the pro-forma declaration cover sheet and attach this to your assignment.