Law
Advise Jim and Neal, the farmer and the store owners as to what you think will happen.
You must read the following case study and provide and advice to the person requesting the information. You will need to identify all of the legal elements to the case, provide advice about what you think each party should do and come to a conclusion about what the outcome will be.
Marks 10
Spelling and Grammar 1
Identifying legal elements 3
Content/argument 5
Decision on outcome 1
Case Study
Jim was a well-known business man in Kamloops. He recently retired from his job and decided he wanted to start a business with his neighbour. Jim had a sweet tooth and decided to start an ice cream distribution company. Jim’s neighbour, Neal, had a connection with a local farmer who produced his own ice cream and several other farmers in the area who were also producing ice cream. Neal did not really have any money as he has never been good a managing cash. Jim was going to fund the operation and Neal was going to make the connections with the farmers.
The plan was to take all of these small farmers and act as an intermediary between the farmers and retailers. Once they has set up contracts on behalf of the farmers they would then deliver the ice cream.
Their idea was a huge success and within two months they had 15 farmers who wanted to distribute their products through Jim and Neal’s business. Neal was very excited as he had never been good at business and this was the first time he felt successful. In his excitement Neal told all of the farmers that the store owners wanted triple the amount of ice cream next month.
Jim had actually been dealing with all of the orders for the stores and it turned out that only one store wanted extra ice cream next month and they only wanted the extra from one farmer not all of them. When Neal went to do the pick-ups and deliveries for the next month all of the farmers provided him with the extra ice cream he had told them the stores wanted. On the way to drop off the ice cream Jim though they had extra ice cream as the truck looked really full however he did not say anything.
When they arrived at the stores, all of the stores except one refuse to take the extra ice cream. Jim became quite worried about the extra ice cream and told Neal to take it back to all of the farms. When he tried to return the ice cream all of the farms refused to take it back. They all said Neal had made the mistake and it was his responsibility to deal with the ice cream.
Since Jim and Neal did not have the facility to store the ice cream most of it went bad before they were able to deal with it. The famers are now demanding payment for the ice cream and will not give Jim and Neal any further ice cream until they get paid. The stores have also started calling Jim and Neal asking where the ice cream is as they are in the busy part of the summer and do not have any ice cream.
Law
The misinformation and misrepresentation of facts in the contract have adversely affected the running of the business as well as to the parties involved. In this case, Neal requested the farmers to increase their ice-cream quantity to triple in the following month as the store owners had requested the same. However, only one store had requested the addition of an extra. Upon all the farmers supplying one extra ice cream, only one store owner accepted ice cream and thus Jim and Jean were left extra ice cream. The farmers refused to receive the extra cream from Jim and Jean who had no storage for the ice cream. The ice cream ends up being bad and the farmers demanded the payment of the spoil ice cream.
In handling the case, it is clear that the contract to supply extra ice cream was made entered out of misrepresentation of facts and thus every party need to play their obligation. First, Jim and Jean need to realize that the contract to supply extra ice cream was as a result of their mistake. Therefore, Jin and Jean need to commit to paying even for the spoilt ice cream to ensure that all parties are satisfied.
The farmers need to realize that the contract to supply extra ice cream was based on wrong information and should work on reducing their ice cream supply. The farmers need to maintain the previous supply of milk to ensure that Jim and Jean are not overburdened with excess milk.
Additionally, the shop owners need to maintain their demand for milk and request for extra ice cream when the demand increases. The shop owners need to make changes in their ice cream demand in advance to Jim and Jean to ensure they give them time to adjust and advice the farmers accordingly.
In conclusion, the contract to increase the ice cream supply to store owners was based on false information should be collected. Jim and Jean need to pay for the spoilt ice cream to ensure their business continues to runs effectively.
