MLC707 – Commercial and Corporations Law
T1, 2017
Assignment one– Group Assignment
DUE DATE AND TIME: Week 8 [on Wednesday, 3 May 2017], on or before 11:59PM
PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 40%
HURDLE DETAILS: None
Learning Outcome Details
Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) Graduate Learning Outcome
(GLO)
ULO 1: Explain and apply the fundamental principles of
Australian commercial law & corporations law which covers
the areas of the Australian legal system, contract law,
agency, law of tort and corporations law.
GLO1: Discipline-specific
knowledge and
capabilities
ULO 2: Analyse how Australian Commercial and
Corporations Law has developed to resolve business
challenges and identify limitations to its current scope.
GLO5: Problem solving
ULO 3: Use research and analysis skills to critically evaluate
the principles of Australian Commercial and Corporations
Law.
GLO4: Critical thinking
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Assessment Feedback:
Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback in fifteen
working days on CloudDeakin on 24 May 2017, 5:30PM
Description / Requirements
Assessment: Research Paper is worth 40% of the final mark. Every group member obtains the same
mark. As a result, you will need to ensure that everybody contributes their share.
Word Count: 4000 words excluding citations, quotations, footnotes and bibliography (10% leeway).
Group Assignment Question
In 2010, the plaintiff, “Bertini Italian Restaurant” (hereafter Bertini) was in negotiations to enter
into a long-term lease contract for restaurant space with Garland Properties Pty Ltd (hereafter
Garland), owner of a large commercial property in Docklands,Melbourne. Bertini has been leasing
this property on month-to-month basis and needed the assurance of a long term contract. To this
effect, Bertini demanded a lease period of ten years, with an option to renew for additional five
years at the end of the lease.
Bertini was not able to secure the ten year lease that he sought. During the negotiation it became
clear that Garland was prepared to offer five years lease only. Bertini was also told to undertake
significant refurbishment work to Garland’s satisfaction at the beginning of the lease to ensure that
the restaurant is brought up to the required standard in comparison to other restaurants in the
commercial complex. Bertini was so anxious that his business would not be able to recoup these
refurbishment expenses if he does not get assurance that the lease is for ten years. In fact, the
refurbishment cost run to $2 million. However, Garland did not budge, but made statements to the
effect that if Bertini signed the five-year lease contract and refurbished the restaurant to the desired
level before the start of “Melbourne Expo”, an important international event to be held in the city,
he “will be looked after at renewal time.” Garland representatives also mentioned that the reason
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they specified a five years lease term was to make the leases align with those of other tenants in the
Complex.
The lease contract did not contain an option to renew. However, it contained the following clauses:
The Landlord must give notice to the Tenant, at least 6 months, but no more than 12 months before
the expiry date of the first five year lease, indicating whether:
a) The Landlord will renew this lease and the terms of the new lease
b) The Landlord will allow the Tenant to occupy the premises on month-to-month contract
basis; or
c) The Landlord will require the Tenant to vacate the premises upon the expiry of the lease
Six months before the expiry of the five year lease, Garland informed Bertini that the lease will not
be renewed and he should vacate the premises. As a result, Bertini had to stop his business
submitted to voluntary administration in a path to insolvency. Bertini would have made $200,000 in
ordinary profits and $100,000 in exceptional profits due to some lucrative deals, if the lease was
extended for additional five years.
This matter comes to your group for your legal opinion. Please do the following.
1. Advise Bertini by focusing in particular on issues of collateral contract, promissory estoppel,
and and remedies.
2. Advise Garland by focusing in particular on issues of collateral contract, promissory estoppel
and remedies.
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Submission Instructions
Submission must be received on CloudDeakin on or before 11.59 pm in Week 8 [on Wednesday, 3
May 2017], on or before 11:59PM. For more information, please refer to the information posted on
CloudDeakin.
The Assignment Drop Box (T1 2017 MLC707 Group Assignment 1 ) will remain open for additional
five days for those who submit late subject to penalty. See newly adopted Faculty penalty rules
below. Please disregard penalty related information on unit guide as this information is superseded
by a newer rule adopted recently.
Emailed or faxed submissions WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED for any reason other than due to a
CloudDeakin failure (the Unit Chair can verify this from CloudDeakin). You must submit your
assignment to the Assignment Dropbox T1 2017 MLC707 Group Assignment 1 folder.
You must reference your written assignment in accordance with the Deakin Harvard Referencing
Guide. Specifically, please refer to the ‘Legal sources’ referencing section within the Deakin
Harvard Referencing Guide: http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-
support/referencing/harvard or click here for Harvard style of referencing
Please refer to the Marking Rubric to ensure you follow the guidelines carefully to avoid losing
marks for unnecessary mistakes and omissions.
You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked assignment has
been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced, you will
need to submit your backup copy.
Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting
collusion and/or plagiarism.
When you are required to submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will
receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should
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check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment dropbox folder
after upload, and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.
Additional Notes
Penalties for late submission: The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an
assessment task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted
from available marks for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than
five days after the due date will not be marked. You will receive 0% for the task. 'Day'
means working day for paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. The
Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable
to assess the task after the due date.
For more information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and
assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a
student in this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide of the Resources area in the
CloudDeakin unit site.
Building evidence of your experiences, skills and knowledge (Portfolio) - Building a
portfolio that evidences your skills, knowledge and experience will provide you with a
valuable tool to help you prepare for interviews and to showcase to potential employers.
There are a number of tools that you can use to build a portfolio. You are provided with
cloud space through OneDrive, or through the Portfolio tool in the Cloud Unit Site, but you
can use any storage repository system that you like. Remember that a Portfolio is YOUR
tool. You should be able to store your assessment work, reflections, achievements and
artefacts in YOUR Portfolio. Once you have completed this assessment piece, add it to your
personal Portfolio to use and showcase your learning later, when applying for jobs, or
further studies. Curate your work by adding meaningful tags to your artefacts that describe
what the artefact represents.
Marking guide: 40 marks total (100%)
o Questions 1-40%
Group identifies and defines the correct area of the law and legal rules
relevant to the problem (10%)
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Analysis/Application of legal rules to the factual problems (20%)
Conclusion (10%
o Question 2-40%
Group identifies and defines the correct area of the law and legal rules
relevant to the problem (10%)
Analysis/Application of legal rules to the factual problems (20%)
Conclusion (10%)
o Research and Referencing- 20%
Checklist:
Before submission, please check whether you have ...
o Saved the assessment as a word document (.doc or .docx ONLY)
o Included a word count for the assignment
o Complied with the referencing rules and bibliography.
o Checked for any plagiarized material.
Good luck and happy researching!
Firew Tiba
Unit Chair