Reference no: EM132092836

Barry was sick of his day job, and wanted to buy a business so he could become his own boss. He saw that a fruit and vegetable store was up for sale at his local shopping village. The owner had posted an advertisement on the notice board at the shopping village as follows:

Highly profitable venture in bustling suburban shopping centre with turnover of $20,000 per month. No competitors. $250,000 plus stock-in-trade. Ring Angelo on 0434 123 456. Barry telephoned Angelo and asked about the store. He asked what the expenses of the business were, and Angelo told him that they were $8,000 per month. Barry liked what he ad heard, so he decided to check out how busy the shopping centre was. On the weekend, when he wasn't working, he went to the shopping centre a few times and noticed that it was open all day Saturday and Sunday and was busy most of that time. He negotiated with Angelo and eventually agreed to buy the business for $200,000. To save money, he did not hire a lawyer, and signed a contract which included the following term:

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The sale includes the following plant and equipment:

Item Value

Delivery van $15,000

Loader $2,000

Barry paid for the business and took over running it on 1 January 2018. When he took over the store, he discovered the following problems:

(a) Although the shopping village was busy on the weekends, it was very quiet during the week. In the first two months the turnover was only $13,000 per month.

(b) There was a grocery store in the shopping village that sold a wide range of fruit and vegetables.

(c) After six weeks, a man from a finance company arrived at the shop and repossessed the delivery van. It turned out that the van was only leased by the previous owner, and since Barry had not made the lease payments, the lease was in default. Barry's expenses at the shop had been below $8,000 per month, but if he had paid the van lease, the expenses would have been on average about $8,500 per month.

(d) The loader, which was a small motorised machine for putting pallets on and off the back of the van, was broken down and could not be fixed for less than the cost of replacing it.

You are providing a written report to your supervising partner. To impress him, you want to show that you worked hard at university by demonstrating your knowledge of law and your ability to use it. You need to provide a written report providing the following advices.

Advise how Barry might challenge the validity of the contract on the basis of the statements made by Angelo before the contract was entered into. You should consider both common law and statute law ( with statutes and case laws)