Australian Business Law Case Study
QUESTION
Running late for his exciting evening law class, Sam desperately seeks out a car park in the CBD of Melbourne, state of Victoria Australia. He spots the car park operated by Citipark Ltd. Sam drives up a ramp which has raised concrete barriers on either side. As it is rush hour, there are a few cars in front of him and soon some more line up behind him.
Sam stopped his car at the barrier entrance of the car park which had a mechanical arm preventing cars moving into the parking bay unless the driver had first taken a ticket from the machine. The automatic ticket-issuing machine projected a ticket, which Sam took. Above the ticket was a large notice, which read. 'Halt ' Parking at owner's risk. Take a ticket from the machine and then pay when you leave'.
Sam put the ticket in his pocket without reading it and the barrier gate raised automatically. Sam then drove through and parked his car. When he returned to pick up his car, he found that it had been damaged by an attendant working for Citipark Car Park. The attendant was driving another car and carelessly drove into the side of Sam’s car.
The parking ticket had these words printed on the back of it. 'Conditions of parking ' It is a condition of the issue of this ticket that vehicles are parked on these premises at the owner's risk and responsibility. The proprietors of this car park accept no responsibility for loss or damage to vehicles in the parking area whether caused by negligence or in any way whatsoever'.
Required
(a) Advise Sam whether he can recover the cost of repairing his car from Citipark Ltd. Your answer should separately consider Citipark’s liability under common law and legislation. .
(b) Assume Sam had been a regular user of Citipark Car park, how would this affect your answer to (a) above?
(c) Assume that the exclusion clause applies and that Sam's car had been mistakenly handed over to a fraudster who falsely represented that he was the owner of the
Running late for his exciting evening law class, Sam desperately seeks out a car park in the CBD of Melbourne, state of Victoria Australia. He spots the car park operated by Citipark Ltd. Sam drives up a ramp which has raised concrete barriers on either side. As it is rush hour, there are a few cars in front of him and soon some more line up behind him.
Sam stopped his car at the barrier entrance of the car park which had a mechanical arm preventing cars moving into the parking bay unless the driver had first taken a ticket from the machine. The automatic ticket-issuing machine projected a ticket, which Sam took. Above the ticket was a large notice, which read. 'Halt ' Parking at owner's risk. Take a ticket from the machine and then pay when you leave'.
Sam put the ticket in his pocket without reading it and the barrier gate raised automatically. Sam then drove through and parked his car. When he returned to pick up his car, he found that it had been damaged by an attendant working for Citipark Car Park. The attendant was driving another car and carelessly drove into the side of Sam’s car.
The parking ticket had these words printed on the back of it. 'Conditions of parking ' It is a condition of the issue of this ticket that vehicles are parked on these premises at the owner's risk and responsibility. The proprietors of this car park accept no responsibility for loss or damage to vehicles in the parking area whether caused by negligence or in any way whatsoever'.
Required
(a) Advise Sam whether he can recover the cost of repairing his car from Citipark Ltd. Your answer should separately consider Citipark’s liability under common law and legislation. .
(b) Assume Sam had been a regular user of Citipark Car park, how would this affect your answer to (a) above?
(c) Assume that the exclusion clause applies and that Sam's car had been mistakenly handed over to a fraudster who falsely represented that he was the owner of the