1 * In New Zealand a draft Act of Parliament is a Bill which passes through various stages of discussion and becomes law when signed by the British Queen's representative in NZ, the solicitor-general

2 * A building contract over $20,000 in value is not legally enforceable unless it is in writing

3 * Terms of a contract have to be made by prior express agreement as terms cannot be implied into a contract

4 * A term that is necessary for business efficacy can be implied into a contract

5 * If an agreement has been entered into in writing and both parties signed the agreement but oneparty did not willingly sign the agreement, the agreement is unenforceable

6 * It does not necessarily follow that if one party to an agreement has used its economic position to persuade the other party to agree to disadvantageous terms, that the agreement is not enforceable

7 * Having breached a contract by not doing what a party agreed to do, that party is liable to the other party in damages as money to compensate that party for the harm or loss caused by the breach

8 * Once an agreement is made between two parties then providing there is an agreement for the payment of some money, the agreement is always a legally enforceable contract

9 * The element of "consideration" in a contract means that the parties have thought about it and have considered their intentions under the agreement

10 * An agreement may have the basic components of a contract but unless there was an intention to create legal relations when it was made, it is not a legally enforceable agreement

11 * Capacity to contract concerns a party's mental ability to be able to know what they are doing when making a contract for example by reason of age or mental state, either permanent or temporary therefore it is impossible to make a legally binding contract after drinking alcohol

12 * A deed is an agreement made in a specific form which, unlike a contract, can create legallybinding obligations without the presence of consideration

13 * Before legislation changed the position, an advertisement offering to sell an article at a certain  price did not bind the seller to have to sell at the advertised price because it was not an offer butwas only an invitation to treat inviting the buyer to offer to buy at the advertised price which the seller could accept or reject

14 * If an offer is accepted by post then the 'postal rule' says the offer is accepted when the letteris put into the letter box by the offeree regardless of whether the offeror ever received that letter

15 * Even if the Courts consider the parties real intention was to enter into a binding agreement unless the nature of the agreement is 100% certain on every point they will not enforce an agreement

16 * If agreements are made in a business setting there is a presumption by the Court that there was no intention to create legal relations if one party actually thought that when it entered the agreement

17 * If agreements are made in a social or family setting there is a presumption by the Court that there was an intention to create legal relations which either party may argue against

18 * A legally binding contract can be made by A promising to do something for B in exchange for apromise by B to do something for A

19 * There is legislation in New Zealand which applies solely to construction work including the Construction Contracts Act 2002 and the Contractual Remedies Act 1979

20 * A builder and homeowners agree a price of $100,000 for alterations to the homeowners' house for  which no building consent has yetbeen applied for, but shortly before the builder is due to start  work the homeowners tell the builder they have sold the house so will not be proceeding with the work and because they had not gained a building consent when they made their agreement, it was an   illegal contract under the Illegal Contracts Act 1970, so the builder cannot take action against them to recover as damages, the profit etc. the builder would have made if the work had proceeded

21 * A misrepresentation is an untrue statement of a future fact for the purposes of the Contractual Remedies Act 1979 e.g. the statement made to sell agricultural land that it will produce a certain quantity of corn per acre next year which it fails to do

22 * If a misrepresentation is made by A to B about A's house being constructed entirely from treated timber which B believes and buys A's house in reliance on that advice but later discovers the timber is all untreated when the house leaks and rots, because there was no consensus ad idem i.e. agreement on what was being bought and sold, there was no binding contract, so B cannot then s/he has two options under the Contractual Remedies Act 1979 being to either keep thecontract alive and claim damages or cancel the contract but lose entitlement to damages

23 * A tort is a 'wrong' which when committed by someone [a tortfeasor] gives someone harmed by it  a right to take action, for example the tort of trespass by placing building materials used to build a house on an adjacent section without the owner's permission would entitle the owner to have thematerials removed and receive compensation for any damage caused

24 * There are three types of trespass, trespass to land, trespass to property, and trespass to person, the last one of which is now superseded by the crime of assault in New Zealand, the difference beingthat trespass to a person was once only actionable if the 'injured' person pursued it whereas theState can take action against a person committing assault [refer Crimes Act 1961] and punish them

25 * Nuisance is similar to trespass to land but whereas trespass is direct intrusion to land, nuisance is indirect intrusion such as: smells, fumes, noise, smoke, dust, noxious weed seeds, crop spray and so on which leaves one area and intrudes upon another to affect the 'quiet enjoyment' by a person of their land

26 * There is a single category of the tort of nuisance

27 * Nuisance is the most common category of tort raised in court cases involving construction work

28 * Negligence is the most common tort applied in court cases generally

29 * If someone does something with insufficient care and skill thereby causing harm to another person s/he is automatically liable to compensate that person for the harm caused

30 * Whether a person is liable to another person for the consequences of his/her negligence depends on whether in such circumstances the Court has found that s/he owes a duty of care to that person

31 * Liability for the consequences of negligence are limited to physical harm to persons or property

32 * A person can be held concurrently liable for both a breach of contract and in the tort of negligence 

33 * Any harm suffered that but for a person's negligence would not have arisen has to be compensated by the negligent party

34 * A professional indemnity insurance policy is designed to bear the costs of defending an action against the policy holder for his/her negligence but not to cover the cost of damages if it is proven s/he was negligent

35 * Designers are particularly vulnerable to claims for negligence because their designs may lead to defective work or even structural failure

36 * Just because a design is defective does not mean it was done negligently, for example the state of industry knowledge when the design was produced was such that it was believed to be satisfactory

37 * Quantity surveyors are never held liable in negligence because they do not provide design services

38 * If a quantity surveyor negligently provides a client with a cost estimate for construction work that is far  too low, so when tenders are called, the bids are much higher, the client can accept the lowest bid and successfully claim the difference in price between the lowest bid and the quantity surveyor'sestimate of cost, as damages

39 * Builders are less likely to be found liable in negligence when working under a contract to follow a design provided by the building owner than they are to be found liable for breach of contract because any deviation from the design leading to defective work or structural failure is a breach of contract and the builder is liable for the consequences without any need to prove the builder was negligent

40 * Even when a builder accurately follows a design produced by the building owner it does not follow that the builder cannot be held liable to some extent for the defective work that results

41 * A builder is in a difficult position when told to follow a design the builder believes to be defective unless the builder makes it clear it only does so on the basis that the building owner indemnifies the builder against any adverse consequences of doing so, otherwise when problems arise, the the builder may be held responsible for proceeding according to a design it knew was defective

42 * A designer with limited experience is not required to perform to the same standard of care an an experienced practitioner must work to in order to avoid being held liable for negligence

43 * An agent is someone who acts for a principal and can bind the principal by his/her actions, forexample the supervisor on a building site acts as agent for the building company employing him/her and can agree on the building company's behalf to do extra work for the principal

44 * If an agent acts beyond the authority the principal gives the agent but it appears to a third party that the agent is acting correctly, then the agent's wrongful actions nevertheless bind the principal

45 *An example of an agent binding his/her principal for their wrongful action is a real estate agent selling a house for the owner, the agent misrepresents the location of the boundaries of the property toa potential purchaser who buys the house in reliance on where the agent says the boundaries are,later discovers the site is much smaller than it was represented to be by the agent, the purchaser then sues the vendor [not the agent] for misrepresentation, and seeks damages to compensate for thelesser value of the house relying on the Contractual Remedies Act 1979

46 * The instructions a principal gives to an agent to act for him/her are a warranty of authority

47 * In a business partnership each partner acts as agent for every other partner as his/her principal which is why each one is responsible for the torts committed by any other partner when it appears s/he has acted according to the business conducted by the partnership e.g. a firm of architects inwhich one partner negligently designs a defective building and the other partners are also liable for the consequences

48 * Partners in an ordinary partnership are only liable for the value of their shares in the partnership when issues of legal liability arise for any reason

49 * In the order of development of English law, rules of equity preceded the common law

50 * In NZ as in England, the common law and the rules of equity were always applied in the same courts

51 * The role of equity in New Zealand has largely been supplanted by legislation

52 * Common law developed in the courts of England by the judges who followed earlier decisions with similar facts and circumstances and by analogy determined principles to apply to similar situations it is therefore certain and indisputable that judges today make law 

53 * A precedent is a decision made by a judge in court with sufficient authority to serve as an example to be followed by other judges. Lower courts follow the decisions made by judges in higher courts

54 * The principle of "stare decisis" is a fundamental aspect of the doctrine of judicial precedent whereby the courts follow earlier decisions. It means "look intently at the decision"

55 * Civil laws relating to wrongs or harm done by one person to another person or his/her property is known as the 'law of torts'

56 * There are a number of individual torts including negligence, nuisance, trespass, defamation, and the most common of all, invasion of privacy

57 * Unless the nature of an act or omission is recognised by the law as being a tort, even if the harm is intentionally caused to a person or his/her property by an act or omission not recognised as a tort, the person causing the harm is not liable for the consequences in a civil action

58 * Liability in contract, criminal law, or breach of some statutory obligation may render a person liable or his/her acts or omissions independent of liability in tort

59 * Private nuisance concerns the rights of the public's use of land such as blocking a highway

60 * If a person who occupies land unreasonably interferes with an occupier of nearby or neighbouring land and his/her proper use and enjoyment of the land s/he occupies, then that unreasonable interference is the tort of private nuisance.

61 * The common law only developed two forms of trespass, 'trespass to goods' and 'trespass to land'

62 * TheAccident Insurance Act 2001 provides compensation for accidental injury to persons without them having to prove their injuries were caused by someone's fault such as a negligent employer, andhaving to sue for damages in court.

63 * The 'no fault' compensation scheme of the Accident Insurance Act 2001 allows injured parties to  be compensated for their injuries but effectively removes their right to sue the person who caused their injuries, unless they are claiming "exemplary damages"

64 * 'Trespass to the land' only gave rise to a civil action until the Trespass Act 1980 was enacted

65 * Negligence is a word used in the legal sense that in the ordinary sense of the word meanscarelessness. Basically a person who is careless thereby causing harm to others by his/her acts or omissions may be held liable for the consequences.

66 * The tort of negligence was one of the first torts to be established in the English legal system

67 * In the absence of a court saying that a person owes a 'duty of care', a person will not be liable for the consequences of his/her acts or omissions in the tort of negligence

68 * A duty of care is owed to the 'world at large'

69 * If a claimant brings a claim for the tort of negligence the court will first establish whether therespondent owes a duty of care in those circumstances and then decide whether his/her acts or omissions fell below the required standard of care so at to make him/her liable in negligence to theclaimant. The standard required is subjective according to the defendant's personal circumstances.

70 * Originally the tort of negligence was restricted to acts or omissions causing physical harm to persons or property but in 1963 the English House of Lords held that a person giving negligent advice couldbe held liable for loss in value of property I.e. economic loss without physical harm.

71 * The tort of defamation consists of an oral statement made in private that lowers a person's standing amongst other optional factors.

72 * The only remedy available for the tort of defamation is an award of damages

73 * The substantial difference between a morally binding agreement and a legally binding contract is that the former has an intention by the parties to it to create legal relations whereas the latter does not

74 * Apart from one or two exceptions set out in legislation, which should include some building work in 2015 a contract does not have to be in writing to be enforceable at law

75 * A contract can consist of an exchange of money for services or goods by the actual exchange itself e.g. buying something in a shop, or it can consist of an exchange of promises where delivery and payment are postponed so an action for breach can be based on either of two grounds, breach of terms by failing to carry out the contract correctly or breach of promise by a failure to perform at all

76 * A contract exists as soon as the following factors can be identified in an agreement: intention to create  legal relations; offer and acceptance; capacity to contract; genuine consent; absence of duress; legality of purpose; and consensus ad idem (I.e. agreement on what has been agreed to).

77 * Freedom to contract on any terms the parties think fit is an important element of contract although in practice it can lead to unfortunate results where for example there may be inequality of bargaining power so that one party is taken unfair advantage of

78 * Contracts are regulated to some extent by legislation although contracts are brought into being by the common law rather than legislation. Examples of relevant legislation are the Sale of Goods Act 1993 and the Consumer Guarantees Act 1908

79 * In addition to express terms in a contract a court will imply terms into it if such terms are in common use in the trade to which the contract is related, regardless of whether such terms are essential for the operation of the contract.