Description

George Brown College

Business Law  

Professor: Charlotte Goldfried

Email: charlotte.goldfried@georgebrown.ca

Assignment #2

Directions: Answer the questions below.  You must refer to at least one current Canadian Business or Commercial Law textbook in support of your answers. Your answers should be in paragraph form, double spaced and in 12 point font.  This assignment is due on November 21, 2019, between 9:00 and 9:15 a.m., in hard copy, in class. Please do not send your assignment via email. 

Any assignment delivered past 9:15 p.m., will be considered late and will receive a 10% late penalty.  I will not accept assignments that are more than one week late, without appropriate written support, such as a medical note that would explain an illness of two weeks duration.  Please note the following:

1.    Answer all questions and refer to the rubric.

2.    This is an individual assignment.

3.    You must read and refer to at least one current Canadian textbook in support of your answers.  

4.    If you do not use any resources, you will automatically receive a failing grade on this assignment.  Class power point presentations are not an acceptable resource.

Questions

1.    What is the difference between the actual and apparent authority of the agent?

An agent is a person who acts or represents another, usually in contract matters. A principal is a person on whose behalf an agent acts.

2. What is the difference between agency by estoppel and agency by ratification? Provide an example.

3. Ty Sharim has been employed as an agent for Farley’s Game and Fishing Lodge Inc. for the past 10 years.  Farley’s runs an exclusive hunting and fishing camp in northern Ontario.  Ty’s contractual duties include advertising the camp and soliciting customers at fish and gun shows and conventions in North America and elsewhere.  One weekend while on a fishing trip with his family, Ty came across a small fishing camp that was for sale.  As Ty has always dreamed of owning and operating his own business, he is thinking of putting in an offer to purchase the camp.  Can Ty put in an offer to purchase the camp, or must he inform Farley’s of the camp.  Thoroughly explain your answer.

4. Clayton began working for Sleep Eze, located in Newmarket, Ontario, in 1980 as a customer service manager.  In 1995, Sleep Eze had Clayton and all other salespeople enter into a series of one-year agreements that stated that they could be terminated on 60 day’s notice.  Three years later, in 1998, the company insisted that Clayton incorporate, and from that point on, the agreements were between Sleep Eze and Clayton’s incorporation.  The agreements defined Clayton, and later his corporation as an “independent marketing consultant” and expressly stated that the relationship was not an employment relationship, but rather an independent contractor – principal relationship.  Clayton paid for his own office space and remitted his own income taxes and workers’ compensation premiums.  At the same time, Sleep-Eze  set prices, territory, and promotional methods and Clayton was limited to servicing Sleep-Eze exclusively.  In 2003, Sleep-Eze terminated the agreement with 60 days’ notice.  Clayton sued for wrongful dismissal damages, alleging that he was an employee.

i. What arguments could Clayton make to support his position that he was an employee?

ii. What arguments could Sleep Eze make to support its position that Clayton was an independent contractor?

iii. Which side do you think would be successful?  Explain why.