The Commercial Bar Association of Victoria Inc. A0120851O
When can a statutory authority owe a common law duty of care? What are the key considerations? The High Court’s decision in Electricity Networks Corporation v Herridge Parties addresses these issues and is summarised in this note.
If you are not a party to a contract, but you are affected by its terms, can you go to court to get a declaration about what the contract means?
In a decision with wide-reaching ramifications for the doctrine of unconscionability in Australia, the High Court in Stubbings v Jams 2 Pty Ltd [2022] HCA 6 comprehensively overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal, finding that lenders had engaged in both general law and statutory unconscionable conduct in their asset-based lending system, and were not redeemed by their ‘window dressing’ advice certificates.
The Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in Queenfield provides an uncommon example of success for a party who sought rectification of a contract for common mistake.
In the recent case of Leeda Projects v Zeng, the Court of Appeal clarified the principles for the assessment of damages for loss of use of real property caused by a breach of contract.
A rare case of rectification which arose because, two years after the sale of a half share in a motel business, the parties realised that their sale agreement had left $6m of debts ‘up in the air’.
This is the second of two articles recapping two key concepts of contract law which may be relevant in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: the force majeure clause, and the common law doctrine of frustration.
This is the first of two articles recapping two key concepts of contract law which may be relevant in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: the force majeure clause, and the common law doctrine of frustration.
The High Court has significantly reduced the scope of the doctrine of quantum meruit in so far as it applies to work undertaken pursuant a contract which has been discharged. In such a case, quantum meruit is only available for completed work but for which a contract entitlement has not crystallised at discharge.
The privacy and data protection regulatory landscape in Australia has seen further recent revision with the formal assent of the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 (Cth) earlier this year. The new law will become operative from 22 February 2018.
To what extent are a defamation plaintiff’s hurt feelings relevant to the defence of triviality? On 20 October 2016, the majority of the Queensland Court of Appeal in Smith v Lucht [2016] QCA 267 definitively answered this question: the plaintiff’s hurt feelings are not relevant to the defence.
The High Court has refused to resolve a conflicting authorities in the law regarding treatment of payments over award in sham employment contracts.