Contents

Overview.. 2

Court details. 2

Court 2

Judges. 2

General issues of the case. 2

Against 2

Facts. 2

Issues. 3

The required arguments of Plaintiff. 3

Held. 3

Important quote related with the case. 4

Decision made by the judges. 4

Decisions made by high court judges. 4

Conclusion. 4

References. 5

Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

Overview of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

This case was related to the issue of consideration. According to this case, it can be noted that it was considered as a part of a scheme to encourage the purchase of wool after the end of World War 2. According to this case, government was offering a huge subsidy for the manufactures of wool around Australia. They can easily purchase wool and use in its local manufacturing process. Moreover, according to this fact, the plaintiff was involved in purchasing wool and also using it for the required purpose and received required payments. Then according to this government stopped the payment process. Due to this case, subsidy was claimed by Plaintiff according to the required argue. This argue was showing that there was a complete contract between the two parties for paying subsidies. According to this case, there was a key issue present between the government and plaintiff and it was regarding the buying of wool consideration for a promise of a subsidy. Moreover, it was also a merely important condition for the entitlement of the subsidy. Due to these facts, there was still another issues was arise. It was related to the intentions for creating legal relations between the two parties. Therefore, it was showing that the claim of Plaintiff was failed badly. Due to this, the court was held in joint judgement and shows that there was not a single piece of consideration present between the parties for buying wools. Moreover, the court has also presented that there is no need of intentions for creating legal relations. Due to this fact, it was extremely difficult for plaintiff for claiming about the wool purchase.

Court details of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

There are some important details about the case.

Court

This case was held in the High Court of Australia

Judges

For this case, there are about five main judges and they are given below

Dixon CJ, Webb J, Fullagar J, Williams J, Kitto J.

General issues of the case

There are some general issues and they are related with the agreement, Intention and consideration.

Against

This case was against the Commonwealth Government of Australia

Facts of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

There are some important facts related to this case. It can be noted that in June 1946 the Commonwealth Government of Australia had announced that there is a need to pay subsidy to the main manufactures of wool. This subsidy was for those persons that are involved in local manufacturing of the wool related products. It was showing that just after 30^th June 1946, the local manufactures are able to purchase the wool. According to this fact, the Plaintiff was purchasing the wool and also using it for local manufacturing from 1946 - 1948. According to this, he also received required payments from the government officials. Then after some time, the government officials had stopped the subsidy scheme. Due to this fact, Plaintiff was not happy with the decision of the government. Due to this he took a swear action against the government officials because he claimed that it was due. Moreover, it was showing that the policy was discontinued by the government in 1948.

On the other hand, it can be seen that the government had made the policy for the subsidy. This is because they wanted to promote the wool industry in this country. It was only reason behind it. The local manufacturers of wool were claiming about the contract with government. It can be noted that if there is a contract between the two parties then, it will be started with an offer. This shows that there was no offer presented by the government related to the subsidy for wool price. It was only a policy presented by the government and accepted by the Plaintiff. This means that they are at mistake.

Issues of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

There are only two issues in the decision

The first one is related to the justification of the contract held between the Local wool manufacturer and also Commonwealth Government of Australia. The next issue was related to the justification of the acceptance of offer by the local manufacturer of wool.

The required arguments of Plaintiff

There are two main arguments were presented by Plaintiff according to this case

The first one was related to the contract between the government and the local manufactures of wool. It was showing that Commonwealth Government had promised with the local manufactures of wool that they will pay subsidies for the domestic consumption of the local wool manufactures.

The next argument was that Plaintiff had purchased the wool according to the agreement between the government and local manufacturers. #

Held of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

According to the case, it can be seen that there was no offer accepted by the local manufacturer of Wools for creating the contract with the commonwealth officials. It was showing that whole case was based on lies and false things that are not acceptable by the court. Moreover, another fact about the case was related to the wool subsidy. It was showing that the wool subsidy presented by the Commonwealth government officials was a policy, not a contractual offer. This shows that it cannot be considered as a contract. Another thing was that the government officials had showed zero intentions for creating a legal contact between the two parties. This scheme was only made by the government for promoting wool industry in an effective way for the future. Moreover, the facts are showing that the government had showed no fraud so there will be no breach.

Important quote related with the case

“What is alleged to be an offer should have been intended to give rise, on the doing of an act, to an obligation… in the absence of such an intention, actual or imputed, the alleged “offer” cannot lead to a contract: there is indeed, in such a case no true “offer”.” (at 457)

Decision made by the judges
Decisions made by high court judges

They had proved that there was not a single contract was presented between the local manufacturer of wool and also the government. The results are presented on the required issued of consideration.

It can be noted that the statement made by the Commonwealth was not considered as an offer. This means that it was not an offer for the plaintiff for buying the wool. For consideration of the statement, it can be noted that this statement should be present in the announcement and it is relied as a promise. But the facts are showing that how to consider policy as a promise made by the government. Another thing is that there will be a complete relationship of Quid pro que between the Act and the statement. This shows that there was no promise offered by the government. Due to this case, there was no promise made by the government with the local manufactures so it was in the favour of the government.

Conclusion of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

Looking at all the information and case facts, it can be said that decision made by the Commonwealth Government was just a decision to promote wool business activity. There was no legal aspect added to this decision. The government did not sign any unilateral or bilateral contract with anyone. That’s why appeal made by the plaintiff was rejected by the court, because the Commonwealth government did not sign any kind of contract with them, which may have suggested how long the subsidy will be provided. So, they had no right to ask for the subsidy, if the government’s decision was changed in this regard.

References of the Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424

Australian Contract Law. (2018). Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://www.australiancontractlaw.com/cases/awm.html

Gibson, A., & Fraser, D. (2014). Business Law 2014. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Jade. (2020). Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://jade.io/j/?a=outline&id=64974

Law Case Summaries. (2020). Australian Woollen Mills v The Commonwealth (1954) 92 CLR 424. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://lawcasesummaries.com/knowledge-base/australian-woollen-mills-v-the-commonwealth-1954-92-clr-424/

Networked Knowledge. (2020). Australian Woollen Mills Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (1954). Retrieved May 21, 2020, from http://netk.net.au/Contract/AustralianWoollenMills.asp