MAN1155 Business Law Ethics Assessment 1 Brief 2025 | UoS

MAN1155 Module Learning Outcomes to be Assessed  

• Explain the nature of contractual agreements and the consequences of negligence in the context of the English legal system  

MAN1155 Assessment Task

Plato Accountants is a boutique accountancy firm based in Guildford that employs 15 staff. The managing partner, Beth Brown, recently decided to expand the firm’s services to include financial advisory work. To support this expansion, Beth tasked the office manager, Chatra Chaudhury, with sourcing new IT software that could handle the increased client workload and regulatory compliance requirements.  

On 3rd February, Chatra saw an advert in the Guildford Gazette Newspaper’s money section for GlobalTechSolutions Ltd. (GTSL), a software provider. It promised to beat any deal on software packages offered locally and promised the most expert implementation and support service in the business.  The advert showed an example of the installation of a financial advisory software package, including implementation services for £15,000.  Chatra contacted GTSL to enquire about their financial advisory software package.   

Terence Tan of GTSL visited the offices of Plato Accountants at 9 am on 6th February and quoted a price of £15,000 for the full package and said he would include a 12-month support plan as part of the deal.   

Chatra agreed to buy the package at the price stated, if it also included implementation

Terence told her that they could also implement, but it would have to be at an additional cost of £3000, bringing the total package to £18000, but that delivery and implementation could be on Monday, 3rd March, provided they received her confirmation within 48 hours.    

At 4 pm on the 7th and after discussing with Beth, Chatra emailed a confirmation of the agreed terms and price of £18,000. Terence left the office for a weekend away at lunchtime that day and didn’t see the email until the following Monday, 10th.    

The next day, GTSL contacted Chatra, stating that due to internal budget constraints, they could no longer include the 12-month support plan in the original price, but were willing to provide it for an additional £2,000. Chatra, concerned about the firm's timeline, reluctantly agreed to the additional cost.  At 9.30 am on 3rd March, Terence telephoned Chatra and told her that they were short-staffed due to illness and that they would not be able to complete the implementation that week as had been arranged.  Chatra had already made considerable arrangements including having paid for staff training the following week, and expressed her disappointment. Terence suggested that he might be able to arrange it, but they would have to bring in extra staff at additional cost which would mean they would have to pay an extra £1000. Reluctantly, Chatra agreed to the extra payment and the system was delivered and installed later that day.  

Upon receiving GTSL’s final invoice on the 6th, Beth questioned whether the firm was legally bound to pay the extra £2,000 for the support plan, arguing that it should have been included in the original price and whether it was also obliged to pay the additional £1,000 for implementation.  

Advise Beth on whether Plato Accountants has entered into any legally binding contracts. For this assessment, you should disregard any potential vitiating factors. 

Purpose of The Assessment

This assessment is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the concepts involved in the formation of a contract. Scenario-based problem questions provide students the opportunity to analyse complex issues and to apply legal principles to produce clear, well-reasoned advice.

Guidelines

Hints & Tips on Completing the Assessment Task

• Begin by reading and annotating the assignment brief – what are the legal issues? Which cases do you think might be relevant?
• Further research – read around these cases further. Begin with your core text and the specialised contract law books in your reading list.
• Plan your answer. Where there are more than two parties, it is usually best to look at the potential contracts between A&B and then A& C rather than in the chronological order given in the scenario.  Take note of the relevant dates when they are important.
• Writing your answer:  

Introduction: You should begin with a very brief introduction, but do not copy out or summarise the scenario.  

Main body: You should be able to refer to the stages without repeating them too much.  

Each section should be broken down into multiple smaller paragraphs – a paragraph for each stage/element – eg ITT/offer/acceptance and so on. 

Each paragraph should use the I.R.A.C. approach.  This means that the focus is on the relevant legal issue rather than the details of the interactions.

Remember that it is the point of law that is important, so no need to explain all the facts of the cases.  

Identify - You should first identify the legal issues in the scenario. Take each element in turn. 

Relevant Law- For each issue, explain the relevant law. Use case law to illustrate the legal principles.  Sometimes there might be 2 similar cases, or 2 cases on a similar point of law which have been decided differently.  

Application– apply those principles from the case law. This means you will need to decide which case and which line of reasoning is most likely to be followed in the scenario and why, or if a case is not followed, then why not? 

Conclusion – for each issue, decide what it means for this case, e.g. has an offer been made at this stage? You should follow this process for each stage in the negotiations or each element in the formation of a contract.    

You should add a short conclusion which summarises your main findings, e.g A contract has been made with B because all the elements are present, but not with C. After all, C didn’t communicate their acceptance.

Format Guidelines:-

Coursework should be submitted in a Word document in a suitable font such as Arial 11 or Calibri 12 (if you have difficulty with Word, then PDF is acceptable) 

The word count must be stated  
The word count does not include reference lists/ title page

Referencing:

A Harvard reference list should be presented at the end of your report. 

• This is not included in the word count (in-text citations are).  Footnotes and endnotes should not be used.
• You must only include items in your reference list that you have read and cited in text.
• Reference lists should not include sources that have not been cited in-text.
• You should take care to ensure that all your references are relevant, support the assertions you have made in the report and that they are valid.
• Note that most of your reference lists should be made up of the legal cases cited and should follow the set format for ‘neutral citations’
• Reference lists should be in alphabetical order

Self Assessment Checklist

• Have you read the relevant chapter of your textbook and further contract law books?
• Have you sought essay writing support from the library
• Have you considered each element required in the formation of a contract? (You generally do not need to discuss capacity, illegality or privity unless you decide they are an issue)
• Have you used case law to illustrate and included the case in the reference list?
• Have you followed the formatting and referencing instructions (above)?
• Have you completed a spell check and proofread your work?
• Is the main body of your report within the word count and stated in your document?
• Have you completed the Turnitin similarity checker on SurreyLearn?

Assessment Criteria

• Knowledge and understanding of relevant legal principles  
• Independent Study and use of relevant case law examples
• Application of Law
• Development of an argument and conclusions
• Structure and presentation of the essay, including correct presentation and formatting of Harvard references.
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