Ethical and Legal Issues: Module 4 Assignments.
Gianni Sports is a clothes manufacturer based in New York mainly specializing in women’s clothing. Gantos is a clothing retailer in Michigan. Gantos placed a purchase order to Gianni Sports for women’s holiday clothing to be delivered on 10 October, 1980. The clause contained in the order stated the cancellation of the purchase order can be done by the buyers for goods that have not yet been shipped by the seller for all or part of the goods and termination can also be done if the goods are delivered late. Gianni Sports specifically made the goods for Gantos which translated to 20-22 percent of Gianni’s business. Gantos cancelled the purchase order in the late September 1980. Was the cancellation clause unconscionable? Yes it was because the goods in questions were tailor-made according to the specification Gantos made for women holiday clothing. This would not only mean loss of business for Gianni Sport but also loss of a ready market for the women holiday clothing.
Dyer bought a Ford through a salesman from Walt Bennett Ford who said that taxes were included in the sale price of $5,895. Dyer signed the written contract to complete the sale and upon licensing the vehicle, she learnt that the Arkansas sales tax had not been paid. Later on she sued Bennett for breach of contract. What is the likely result? She is likely to lose the case as on the contract the sales tax was not reflected although the salesperson hinted to Dyer that it was inclusive of the sale price meaning that it was paid and added to the price which was not so. The contract stated that all agreement was in writing and that verbal agreement, representation or promise would not be recognized. It would have been prudent for Dyer to confirm with the licensing agency if the sales tax had been paid or asked for the sales tax to be included in the contract alongside the sales price.
Rosenfeld is an art collector and Basquiat is an artist. Rosenfeld once visited Basquit’s house and she liked three paintings and wanted to buy them. They settled for $4,000 a piece making it a total of $12,000. Basquit demanded a deposit which Rosenfeld paid in $1,000 upon which Rosenfeld demanded a receipt but Basquit decided to draft a contract with crayons on a large piece of paper that stated, “$12,000—$1,000 DEPOSIT—OCT 25 82.” Is this writing enough to satisfy the statute of frauds? This contract was in written form on a piece of paper no matter how unorthodox it seems this contract was enforceable by law because it contained an agreement through signing of the contract by both parties.
GWI was a manufacturer of beauty products and Sullivan was a distributor of the same. The two entered a contract in 1998 that gave Sullivan the exclusive right to distribute GWI’s products to professional stores and salons in the region. The contract expired in 2003 but they continued to do business under the same terms never the less. In 2006 another regional distributor of GWI, Kaleidoscope assigned Sullivan all of its rights of distribution. GWI decided to terminate the distribution relationship with Sullivan come April, 1 2007 to which it notified Sullivan but Sullivan decided to sue GWI for breach of contract. Is this a good argument? No it is not because the contract between Sullivan and GWI had already expired and the
Assignment Agreement that was passed from Kaleidoscope to Sullivan provided for the termination of the relationship therefore Sullivan has no grounds for suing GWI.
In the case of Ross verses Creighton University. Ross was a good basketballer but a poor student. The agreement of recruiting Ross to play basketball was that the university would give him sufficient tutoring to ensure he received meaningful education while at the school. The university did this and at the end of three years Ross had 96 points which weren’t enough for him to graduate as the minimum was 128. Creighton catered for his expenses as he went to a preparatory school for a year to improve his writing and communication skills. He then enrolled to Roosevelt University and he was soon forced to withdraw for lack of funds. He then sued Creighton for breach of contract. Will Ross win this suit? Ross will probably lose the suit as his contract with Creighton was for academic growth while in the institution as long as he played basketball for them. Creighton fulfilled its part by giving Ross extra tutoring and it also went out of its way to pay for his education in a preparatory school for an entire year. All this finally enabled him to get into Roosevelt University. The issue of any funds whatsoever was not in his agreement with Creighton University.
