2024 Contract Law Question 4 — LawShortcut Independent Model Answer
Marie pays €1,000 for a desk worth €30 and €100 for a painting worth €10 million, both sides mistaken each time. The question turns on the single rule that a common mistake as to quality or value does not void a contract — and on why that rule cuts both ways.
Scenario summary
Marie is on friendly terms with Sean, who lives next door. His children are grown and gone, and he is downsizing. He tells Marie she is welcome to buy anything in the house before he moves out.
He points to the desk beside his chair. Sean says he believes it to be a rare one-off Victorian desk worth a couple of thousand euro at least, but that Marie can have it for €1,000. She agrees to take it “just to help Sean out”.
What she would really like, she says, is the painting in the next room. Sean replies that he never liked it and would let it go for €100 simply to be rid of it. Marie says she will give him the €100 because she likes the painting.
It later emerges that both had it the wrong way round. The desk is a chain store reproduction worth about €30. The painting is a Van Gogh worth €10 million — a fact neither of them knew when they struck the bargain.
Candidates are asked to advise Marie as to her legal position in contract law on those facts.
This is a LawShortcut scenario summary written in our own words. For the exact examined wording, use the official King’s Inns paper linked above.
What this model answer covers
Issues and structure addressed in the full LawShortcut model answer:
- Issue 1 — The desk: €1,000 for a €30 reproduction
- Issue 2 — The painting: a €10 million Van Gogh for €100
- Issue 3 — The symmetry: one rule, two opposite results
- Overall advice to Marie
- Where the 25 marks live — 10 the desk, 10 the painting, 5 framing and advice
- Common ways to lose marks
- Authorities relied on
- The reusable answer structure
Read the complete LawShortcut model answer to this question — reading the question, issue spotting, the applicable law, application to the facts and conclusions — inside the King’s Inns Contract Law Model Answer Vault.
Part of the King’s Inns Contract Law Model Answer Vault — 30 independently authored model answers, 2020—2025.
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