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contract law-Remedies - problem question please help!!!!!!

Anyone can help me with this question ?????thank you

Vitalstatistix is a wealthy businessman and owner of a grand house in a smart suburb. His neighbour Getafix, a pharmaceutical tycoon, has recently built an extension to his house in the form of a tower 50 feet in height. Vitalstatistix does not like to be outdone and obtains planning permission to build his own tower. He asks for a quotation from Obelix Ltd, which quotes £50,000 to build a 50 foot high tower. Vitalstatistix thinks this is a reasonable quote, and decides that, given the very reasonable price of towers, he might as well go to the full 60 feet allowed by his planning permission. He asks Obelix Ltd to quote again, this time for a 60 foot tall tower, so that he can have the satisfaction of having a more imposing tower than Getafix. Obelix’s new quote is for £57,000, and Vitalstatistix agrees with Obelix Ltd for the work to go ahead at that price, the work to be completed before he returns from a six-month business tour of the United States.

Vitalstatistix returns to find his tower in place. It has all the desired rooms and features and is very imposing, but it actually only measures 50 feet. He has made payments on account totalling £50,000 but refuses to pay the remaining £7000. Obelix Ltd is threatening to sue him for the remainder of the contract price.

Advise Vitalstatistix.

Is there any more information you require to give more certain advice?

Would your answer differ if Vitalstatistix had in the meantime brought in new builders to pull the tower down, put in stronger foundations and build a new 60 foot tower to the original specification?
Reply 1
To begin answering this read; Ruxley Electronics and Construction Ltd v Forsyth
[1996], Watts v Morrow [1991] and Farley v Skinner [2002]. Consider the idea of substantive performance, decide if there's a breach and apply damages.
Wow i would love to meet a guy with that name.
Reply 3
Anything else?
Reply 4
Original post by appletrees
Anyone can help me with this question ?????thank you

Vitalstatistix is a wealthy businessman and owner of a grand house in a smart suburb. His neighbour Getafix, a pharmaceutical tycoon, has recently built an extension to his house in the form of a tower 50 feet in height. Vitalstatistix does not like to be outdone and obtains planning permission to build his own tower. He asks for a quotation from Obelix Ltd, which quotes £50,000 to build a 50 foot high tower. Vitalstatistix thinks this is a reasonable quote, and decides that, given the very reasonable price of towers, he might as well go to the full 60 feet allowed by his planning permission. He asks Obelix Ltd to quote again, this time for a 60 foot tall tower, so that he can have the satisfaction of having a more imposing tower than Getafix. Obelix’s new quote is for £57,000, and Vitalstatistix agrees with Obelix Ltd for the work to go ahead at that price, the work to be completed before he returns from a six-month business tour of the United States.

Vitalstatistix returns to find his tower in place. It has all the desired rooms and features and is very imposing, but it actually only measures 50 feet. He has made payments on account totalling £50,000 but refuses to pay the remaining £7000. Obelix Ltd is threatening to sue him for the remainder of the contract price.

Advise Vitalstatistix.

Is there any more information you require to give more certain advice?

Would your answer differ if Vitalstatistix had in the meantime brought in new builders to pull the tower down, put in stronger foundations and build a new 60 foot tower to the original specification?


HEY could I please know how you went about answering the question as I hav a similar essay to write
Reply 5
HEY could I please know how you went about answering the question as I hav a similar essay to write
Reply 6
Original post by Asabi
HEY could I please know how you went about answering the question as I hav a similar essay to write


Have you read the cases I mentioned above? Have you read the relevant chapter in your recommended textbook and followed this up with reading from other texts?

The way to go about answering this question is to identify the issues raised in the scenario, identify the relevant law, apply it to the facts and reach an argued conclusion.
Reply 7
Okay thanks. With regards to my recommened text asides discharge of contract and substantive performance what else do you think would suffice. Asides chesire and ffifoot my recommended text what else would you recommend
Reply 8
Original post by Asabi
Okay thanks. With regards to my recommened text asides discharge of contract and substantive performance what else do you think would suffice. Asides chesire and ffifoot my recommended text what else would you recommend


I'm sorry that I can't help you any further. You'll see from the above posts that they are over 4 years old - when I last studied law of contract. I would risk giving you poor, dated or mis-remembered advice if I attempted to.

Chesire, Fifoot & Furmston is a good text but there are plenty of others available if you're not getting the understanding you need from it. Sometimes a different text can just shine a light on an issue from a new direction and all of a sudden you can 'get it'. Raid your library and give some other texts a go.

Andrew Burrows Casebook on Contract is a seriously good companion to any text book and worth spending a few quid on Amazon for a well used secondhand copy. It stood me in good stead.

Apologies for not being of more help.
Reply 9
Original post by Asabi
HEY could I please know how you went about answering the question as I hav a similar essay to write



Yoo! The q is quite straightforward

You must look at the object of the contract and distinguish Ruxley with Farley v Skinner as Cliffg pointed out. You must decide whether the purpose of the contract was defeated. You might want to consider his change of mind as substantiation. If you look at the q it says that the reason for adding the extra 10 feet is for the building to be more imposing. In that regard, if, as is said in the question, the building is nonetheless very imposing V can only ask for cost of cure, which I assume would be 7000.

The question doesn't have much substance though so I can't really see what more info you could ask for. You're advising V so I can't really see on what other legal basis you could argue.

In normal cases, if reasonable, he could have sought alternative performance and asked for the difference in price ( see Tito v Waddel). I cannot see how this measure was reasonable. I believe that the only way alternative performance would be reasonable is if the other party is clearly not performing and the innocent party would be mitigating for losses which might continue to accrue. There would be a duty of mitigation which he would not have if the breach was anticipatory (side note). In this regard, although defective, the performance had already been completed. He had no ongoing pecuniary loss or any pecuniary loss for that matter. In this case, the only available recourse is to terminate the contract and ask for damages. Expectation damages are not available as too are reliance and exemplary. Loss of amenity damages would be the only recoverable damage as I mentioned above. Now, if he tore down the whole building he would have to bring forth an extremely robust claim that the tower would be of no use if it wasn't 60 feet tall. To exemplify, in Ruxley the guy had had his pool built and asked for 6 inches . They built it at a depth of 5.5 inches or something like that. The court's secondary analysis was that there was no certainty that he would have used the money to reconstruct the pool, an argument which is applicable in this case. But, what was fatal to his claim was that the costs of reconstruction would be far greater than the pleasure he would have derived from those extra centimeters. Now, if the pool had been built for diving, and it was absolutely primordial that it be at a certain depth his claim would have succeeded because the object of the contract was that the pool be of a standard depth for diving. Do you get the difference?
Original post by cliffg

Andrew Burrows Casebook on Contract is a seriously good companion to any text book and worth spending a few quid on Amazon for a well used secondhand copy. It stood me in good stead.


Seconded, it's really one of the best resources I've used throughout four years of academic law.

Original post by Asabi
Okay thanks. With regards to my recommened text asides discharge of contract and substantive performance what else do you think would suffice. Asides chesire and ffifoot my recommended text what else would you recommend


Anson is also very good imho. Authoritative but not too in depth (unlike Treitel, which probably is a little too much for a typical undergrad course).

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