peterg

Don Accountants should stay away from the law ;-) http://lawcentral.com.au Title Fight: Contracts vs Deeds Do you know the difference between a deed and an agreement? Do you know which of these legal documents is most suitable for your transaction? You may have seen these different commercial documents but never asked what the difference is and what requirement or effect they have. Choosing whether to use a deed or agreement for a transaction may have huge consequences later on, should a dispute arise between the parties. Making the right decision at the start could save you a lot of unnecessary time, money and stress. What is a Contract? One of the fundamental principles of contract law is that in order to have a legally effective contract certain legal elements must be met. These elements are: 1 An offer by a party; 2 Acceptance of that offer by another party; 3 Consideration (exchange of something of value); and 4 Intention to create legal relations. For example: Joe wishes to purchase a car from Sam (an intention to create a legal relationship). Joe offers Sam $10,000.00 for the car and Sam accepts. In consideration of Sam providing the car to Joe, Joe gives Sam the $10,000.00. In this simplistic scenario it is clear that all 4 elements have been met. What happens if one or more of the contract elements are not met? If any of the four key elements are missing, your ‘contract’ will not be a contract under law. Therefore, if something goes wrong in the transaction, you may not be able to sue under the written or oral terms of the ‘contract’. Of course, you may be able to sue under another cause of action, under specific legislation or under equity – but this is likely to be a more complex and costly exercise to do so (especially when it comes to obtaining evidentiary proof). As well, it is likely that the remedies available to you (including damages) will be different depending on whether you can sue under the breach provisions of the contract, under specific legislation or under equity. What is a Deed? A deed is essentially a binding promise or commitment to do something. Unlike a contract, a deed does not require the element of consideration. The elements required are that it be: 1 In writing; 2 Signed by all parties (can be in counterparts if there is a specific clause included); 3 Witnessed by at least one person not a party to the deed; 4 Expressed to be a deed in the document itself (e.g. “This Deed hereby....”); 5 Delivered to all parties (although some states specifically require deeds to state that they are “signed, sealed and delivered”; and 6 Supported by evidence that the parties intended to be legally bound by its terms. A unilateral promise unsupported by consideration, is not a legally binding or enforceable contract. However, if this unilateral promise is made by deed, then it will be enforceable. Some Examples An agreement must exist for a contract to exist, but on its own is not sufficient to meet the elements required for a contract. Simply put, all contracts are also agreements, but not all agreements are legally enforceable contracts. In order for an agreement to be a legally enforceable contract consideration must be provided as well as the intention to be legally bound. Here are some scenarios to consider: A Sam says to Joe “I am going to give you $1,000.00”. B Sam owns the company Red Rubber Pty Ltd (“RR”), which is a subsidiary of its parent company Silver Steel Pty Ltd (“SS”). SS offers to pay Joe $1,000.00 to on behalf of RR in return for Joe providing machinery to RR’s rubber factory. RR itself provides no consideration in return for Joe providing the machinery. In both scenarios Joe would be unable to enforce the promise under a normal contract as he provided no consideration to Sam or to SS. However, if either agreement was made with a deed, then Joe would be entitled to enforce the terms of the promise in both scenarios. Should I Use a Deed or a Contract for my Transaction? There may be some circumstances, like the above scenario with Sam and Joe, where there is no choice but to use a deed. Deeds are commonly used for changing your name (by deed poll), financial guarantees, confidentiality agreements, terminations or indemnities. As a general rule, if the existence of consideration is in doubt (or if consideration has been provided only in the past), then you should use a deed instead of a contract. Other factors to consider are: 1 When it is to be binding on a party: deeds are binding when they are signed, sealed and delivered by one party to the other - even if the other party has not yet executed the deed document (see Vincent v Premo Enterprises (Voucher Sales) Ltd [1969] 2 QB 609 at 619 per Lord Denning). 2 Limitation periods: each State or Territory has its own legislation regarding limitation periods. The limitation period is extended for deeds and varies between 12 and 15 years, depending which State or Territory the deed is governed by. The limitation periods for contracts are 6 years in the States and the ACT, whereas in the Northern Territory it is only 3 years. 3 Corporate restrictions: some company representatives are not allowed to sign deeds on behalf of the company, therefore a contract is necessary. 4 Remedies: legal remedies differ between deeds and contracts, therefore this should be considered Conclusion Hopefully this discussion has helped you better understand the differences between deeds and contractual agreements. It is important to note that this is not a simple area of the law and sometimes even the Courts don’t agree on this issue. In the recent case of 400 George Street (Qld) Pty Limited & Ors v BG International Limited [2010] QSC 66 (“George Street”) the Queensland Supreme Court ruled that the document in question was not a deed, and was rather a contractual agreement because of a number of factors. However, on appeal in 400 George Street (Qld) Pty Ltd v BG International Ltd [2010] QCA 245 (“George Street Appeal”), the Queensland Court of Appeal found that the document was in fact a deed, and not a contractual agreement.

Lightspeed have a good app - http://www.lightspeedaviation.com/content/lightspeedaviation/CustomPages/FlightLink.htm

Hi Most of my flying is GA - Australia, New Zealand, US, UK to Australia in C170 and learnt to fly in Chippies in 1960's Got the AUF bug in 1987 (Thrusters & Drifters) - my initial AUF Pilot Certificate (little blue book) had a membership number of 0527 - my Ra-Aus membership is 000527. That said, my AUF membership cards (some of which I still have): 1988 No. 302245, 1990 No. 302245, 1991 101012 Sort of strange set of numbers.

Hello I am going to Tassie mid November on a driving holiday bit would also like to hire a RA-Aus aircraft and do some flying. I have experience on a number of types both GA & RA-Aus and don't mind hiring from either private or commercial operator. Any suggestions appreciated.

Hi Rowan Great release. Had a look at tracking - I use Safari on a Macbook Pro - moving around maps is way too sensitive -s this a problem with Safari or from your end?

Geday It is a fairly simple trip - I've done it many times both VFR & IFR - used to work for Flinders Island Airlines in the 1960's and have done lots of ocean racing. Oscar has given you some good advice so I will not reiterate what he has said (e.g. marine VHF VIP) - Pick your weather - do some research - survival suits are worth a look these days - worth noting that if you inflate a life jacket you might be on the surface but the spray whipped up by the wind off the waves may drown you - water forced into your mouth - devices (funny looking hats) are available to protect you from this. Make sure your PAX has a PLB attached to them as well. Make sure you lifejackets are double bladder and in service. I flew a vintage A/C from the UK to Australia app 25 years ago and as part of my research I spoke to ferry pilots - key point was "if it is not attached to you you haven't got it" - that bloke ditched between Calif & HiLo, got out, inflated the raft & woof - off it went Happy to provide more

Hi Kaz Forgot to mention - there is also a good book - "Flight at Lower Levels" by John Freeman - I've got a copy and am happy to post it to you for a 4? week loan - give me a call or PM me if interested. PG

Kaz There is ag training at Leongatha PG

Nev Was that the Chipmunk in Victoria in the 1960's?

Great video. I was at Temora and I think your video was both very well done and captured the event well. If you can spare the time, would you mind telling which app you used to to the photos & vid (or was it the std iPhone app), what you did to put stills & video together and what you used to combine the music.

I've seen it and it has had some very poor repair work. Previously advertised on this site http://www.recreationalflying.com/threads/challenger-ii-cws-for-sale-cheap-flying.64469/

Is anyone going to Ausfly from the Melbourne area who wants to share the driving/flying/costs?

Michael You have an aircraft that is captured by the curent registration problem - I believe you have owned this aircraft for a number of years. I expect that your relationship with Michael Coates is a bit more than "I know the man if that's what you are asking" and that your ownership of an aircraft affected by the RA-Aus registration problem should have been disclosed to members. Relations - I was asking if you were in some way related to Michael C.

Michael Are you related to or in some way associated with Michael Coates the Pipistrel dealer?

Just read this from New Zealand: n the first of August we are launching a free personal safety App called GetHomeSafe and we were wondering if your members would be interested in giving a trial run before the public get their hands on it. Get Home Safe is a personal safety App that records your position on a secure server every 2 minutes. It will then send a SMS and/or email to your listed contacts if you don't get home or to where you are going as planned. Your intended destination, GPS tracking, remaining battery life and an interactive map are all included in alerts to give your emergency contacts a head start deciding what to do next. The really clever part is that alerts are sent from the Get Home Safe servers, not your phone. So you don’t actually need a working phone or even need to be conscious for an alert to be sent. If you get a spare moment please check out our website for further details. http://www.gethomesafe.com/

I suspect the legal advice said something like "if they don't like it they can challenge it". His position will be challenged in the Court. He is an unsuitable person for both the role and the Board - not smart and no special skills. He has driven some ripper members off the Board and I have dealt with him and found him lacking in commercial skills. Further, I advised him Tizzard was not the right person for the job early in 2012 - his reply was something like other people have told me that. He failed to act until, I suspect, CASA told him to. As for Middleton ...

I have a few comments on the General Meeting held on 9 February 2013. Middleton’s Letter to Members – I found it disturbing that the Secretary took it upon himself to send a letter to all members requesting proxies without giving those who requisitioned the meeting the opportunity to also make a statement and request proxies. This is particularly serious since the Board and Executive’s performance was a major part of the agenda and likely to be voted on. The letter was carefully crafted and possibly not the work of the Secretary but had the effect of getting Middleton a large number of proxies such that if a vote was taken, he and his group would have a significant influence on the outcome. Jason Parkinson – the attendance by the organisation’s legal representative was unusual. I am not clear who he was representing – the Board, the Executive, the Members or indeed, Steve Runciman. If member’s funds are to be used to have a legal representative available to instruct should not those who requisitioned the meeting have funds for similar services made available to them? If Mr Parkinson is the organisation’s legal representative, is it proper that he represent a part of the organisation that may be in conflict with another part? This is perhaps a question for an ethics committee. Steve Runciman’s Resignation – Steve acknowledged that he had resigned as both a member representative and Board Member so the question is simply whether or not the Board has the power to reinstate him. The Constitution is reasonably clear about how member representatives are to be elected. In my opinion, the Board has acted beyond its power. Steve said he had legal advice that his reinstatement was OK but would not table the advice. I asked a number of Board Members if they had seen the advice. The only one to answer in the affirmative was Eugene Reid. The Board – it seemed clear that the Board is dysfunctional, divided, lacks appropriate skills and is often not provided with essential information by the Executive. The Executive also lacks the appropriate skills to provide adequate governance for an organisation the size of RA-Aus. Middleton and Reid have been involved RA-Aus for a long time and have been a constant feature as the organisation lurches from tragedy to tragedy. The Casa Report – the Safety Alert at the end of the CASA report says it all – poor governance. It has been ongoing since the 2009 audit and Middleton and Reid have been part of the governance group. They should both resign. However, it seems they will not. They (and Runciman) want the membership to believe that they acknowledge the problems and even though they have been in the governance group while problems continued to escalate, we should trust them to fix them. I think not.

I rarely comment on posts no matter how bizarre or stupid - however, this is the most insensitive and stupid comment I have seen for a long time

UK to Ausralia in a 1950 C170 VFR in 1990 (pre GPS) & 1991 around NZ airrace (we were not racing) in a C170. Quite a few outback trips in Australia - most memorable - from YMMB up to the gulf and back down the coast.

I have quite a few hours in GA & RAA aircraft and gliders and am interested in trying trikes with the view to purchasing a nano trike. I have contacted a few trike schools (both RAA & HGFA) in Victoria and have received some very different views as to an indicative number of hours to solo in a trike. It appears that the RAA may treat it like a new Pilot Certificate thereby requiring 10 hours minimum training. I am interested in the experience of others who have undertaken a similar transition.