Description of How the Law Applied to the Facts

The court applied four factors of the law to this case these include: that terms of the agreement were unfair, there were undue amount of pressure exerted, Bundy's bargaining power was severely limited and there was a lack of having independent financial advice. Together, these different principals of the law would lead the court to determine that an inequality of bargaining power existed. Under these different areas, Bundy was not of sound mind to make an accurate determination as to what was the right decision. Under the principals of English law, one is not obligated to agreements that were made without independent financial advice and there was property that was transferred. In the case of Bundy, because the bank did not provide independent financial advice when this involved his sole asset, meant that he is not liable. Then when you look at the undue amounts of influence outside this law, there is one case that highlights this Allcard v Skinner. This is relevant because, the court felt that the bank was simply doing anything to lower its risks to a bad loan. They should have taken into account the fact, that this was Bundy's only property and the fact that he was reliant on the bank for financial advice.

Decision

The court decided in favor of Bundy, this is because Lloyds was the sole financial advisor for Herbert Bundy. When they wanted him to sign the note they breached their responsibilities by not giving him impartial advice. This could have been resolved by the bank, by providing an independent second party to advise Bundy. Then, when you combine this with the fact that they exerted pressure upon Bundy to engage in the business transaction, meant that the bank had abused it fiduciary responsibilities.

Order Made by the Court

The court ordered that Bundy is allowed to keep his farm. This is because the transaction that he engaged in was not valid. As a result, the bank can only seek remedy for the loan from Bundy's son Michael.

Social or Contextual Context

This case was decided in 1975. The social context of the time was a push for increased amount of consumer protections. The four principals that the court laid out during the case would provide a basic standard, for providing protections to consumers against aggressive lending practices. The approach that was used was one that is difficult to apply, to a number of different cases. This is because Denning is attempting to write law from the bench, by saying that four principals could be applied to determine if an unfair relationship exists. The problem with engaging in such actions is: you are taking a one size fits all approach when it comes to the law. Anyone, who has any kind trial experience will tell you that flexibility is one of the most important aspects to the law. As a result, many judges have never endorsed these different principals. Also many elements of the Consumer Reporting Act of 1974 address many of the areas that Denning was referring to. This is a law that regulates what assets banks can take as collateral, it gave the courts increased powers to intervene in unfair agreements and it allowed consumers to cancel such agreements under certain conditions. In many ways, this law would allow for adequate consumer protection to remain in place. As a result, the different principals that were outlined during the case were never fully embraced by the legal community or the general public.

Part B: Case Law Research

Case Citations

Explain what each element of the case citation for your assigned case denotes.

Each element of the case citation denotes a number of different pieces of information. These would include: case precedents, future court cases that were influenced, information on the case itself and common terms used throughout the case.

List any parallel (alternate) citations for your assigned case. How did you locate this information?

Several alternate citations were found in various books. This was located by conducting an internet search using Google to find relevant pieces of information. Once this search was complete a total of two books were found. These different sources provided additional background and information that was relevant to the case.

Locating the Full Judgment of Cases

Briefly describe the steps that you would take to locate the full judgment of your assigned case electronically using the Library's databases.

This would be utilized by typing in the appropriate case name and then hitting enter. Once this takes place, you will see a variety of relevant information surrounding the case. In Lloyds Bank Ltd. v Bundy, the name of the case was entered into the database. Then, all relevant information surrounding the case and the terminology were found.

In this particular case, the standard of unfair dealings in various agreements between individuals and corporations can be adjusted or nullified by the courts. The below table illustrates how Lloyds Bank Ltd. v Bundy has been applied to issues in Australian case law.
Citation of your assigned case

(in correct AGLC style)

Source/s used to update your case e.g. Case Base Cases

Citation of the subsequent case

(in correct AGLC style)

Treatment (followed/applied)

Lloyds Bank Ltd. v Bundy

Concise Contract Law

Commercial Bank of Australia v Amadio

Courts can determine inequality in agreements.

If you were researching how an Australian case has been judicially considered by Australian courts, which other online case law research product could you use?

There are a number of other resources which can be used to identify different issues relevant to Australian case law these would include: the National Law Library of Australia, World LII Databases, BNet and CCH Australia.

Locating Cases on a Legal Topic

Locate one authoritative Queensland case and one authoritative Commonwealth / Federal case relating to the topic for your assigned case, as listed below.

Case citation

(in correct AGLC format)

Brief outline of your search strategy (including the case law research product consulted)

Commercial Bank of Australia v Amadio

AustLII Databases. The name of the case was typed in search box. This provides all relevant information on the subject.

Commercial Bank of Australia v Amadio

CommonLII Databases were used. The name of the case was type into the search box. This provided information about the case.

Are either of the cases located in Question 7 available via the AustLII website?

Yes. The way that this was located was by typing in the name the relevant case into the search box and hitting enter. This would provide all case law information about Commercial Bank of Australia v Amadio.

What are the advantages of relying on a decision reported in an authorised law reports series as opposed to the same decision reported on a free Internet website?

The information provide by the various law reports allows you to see: how the case was developed, what was the relevant legal precedent that was used and what elements of the law were relevant to this case. These advantages allow you to see how the actual law applies to this case, according to the legal experts. When you are using a free internet resource, it will provide you with good background information. However, many of the facts could be based on opinions or an ad hock interpretation of the law (making any kind of information not as factually accurate).

Part C: Secondary Sources and Annotated Bibliography

Using the USQ Library Catalogue, locate the citation details for one book (excluding your textbook) that contains information on the doctrine of precedent OR the Australian judiciary/court system. Describe your search process.

At the database, the case that was being researched (Lloyds Bank Ltd. v Bundy) was type the name into the search box along with the word book. This provided various chapters for various books that were relevant on the subject. One was: Giles, Peter. Concise Contract Law. Sydney: Federation Press, (1988) [188 -- 190].

Search for information on the doctrine of precedent in one online legal encyclopaedia available via the USQ Library.

The online legal encyclopaedia was located at Nalo's Plain Law English Encyclopaedia. No paragraph numbers were citied; instead the term would be typed into the search box at the encyclopaedia. The last update to this legal encyclopaedia took place in 2009.

Locate one scholarly journal article that discusses or refers to your assigned case. To complete this task, consult an online case citatory/annotator, which often lists citations for journal articles referring to a particular case, or use an online law journals index.

The journal article was found by typing in the case name into the database and hitting enter.…