Call McGarr Solicitors on: 01 6351580

Home » Contract Law

Contract Law

Contract Law is the area of law most commonly encountered by citizens in everyday life. We all buy goods and services, we make deals with strangers and we work for employers based on certain terms and conditions. All these commercial transactions are governed by the law of contract. It is therefore hardly surprising that this is one of the most actively litigated- and most exhaustively examined- areas of law. Whether it is a dispute between a contractor and a property owner or a demand for money due and owing in a commercial transaction, people instinctively understand that contracts surround and effect them in countless ways every day. The posts below explore different aspects of contract law. Some of them describing the cutting edge of new caselaw. Others look back to precedents which can be hundreds of years old to illuminate current issues.

HSE CTIF

The title means “Health Service Executive Clinical Trial Indemnity Form”. In Ireland a clinical trial (which covers the testing of proposed pharmaceutical products) must be approved by an Ethics committee (of a hospital, say) and the Irish Medicines Board. Because of the legal complications of supplying products on which, effectively, no assurances of safety can (or will) be given, it is standard practice for “the Hospital”, “the Authority”, “the Investigator” and “the Sponsor” to sign a Health Service Executive Clinical […]

More

Class Actions

cc Unarmed Civilian

Britain and Ireland share many things, not least the weather. We share an approach to legal proceedings so, possibly, Ireland will follow the UK into a new form of legal proceedings, known as “collective action mechanisms”, “representative court actions“ or “class actions”. The UK experimented with consumer “opt-in” representative court action. That failed; it was used once. Now, the UK is proposing to introduce “opt-out” representative court actions for consumers. If it works for consumers its attractions may spread it […]

More

Pyrite: Liability, compensation and time limits for claims

The cost of remediation of buildings damaged by the incorporation of pyrites into them is considerable. This is unavoidable where the construction works have been completed and, typically, the pyrites are in the sub-base of the construction. The pyrites expand in certain circumstances, deforming the floor and walls and other structural elements of the building. The current estimate is for 1,100 private dwellings affected. It has been estimated that each will cost €50,000 to repair. That’s a total of €50 million. […]

More

Bad Pills

Many medicines are poisons. According to Paracelsus, everything is poisonous in some degree. This fact presents a legal problem, depending on how it is looked at; if a medicine damages the patient, how can the doctor or the manufacturer be held liable? It was generally known that the medicine was harmful, was it not? The doctor’s case is more straightforward. If the doctor follows general practice and the manufacturer’s instructions, in the prescribing and administering of the medicine she will not […]

More

Your Cheating Heart

Incurring debts, and attempting to recover them, has been a source of tension in civilisations going back to Sumeria.

More

Harley Medical Group – Did you get this notice?

RULE 4.228 OF THE INSOLVENCY RULES 1986 NOTICE TO THE CREDITORS OF AN INSOLVENT COMPANY OF THE RE-USE OF A PROHIBITED NAME THE HARLEY MEDICAL CENTRE LIMITED (Company Number 01728619) I, Melvin Braham, of 11 Queen Anne Street, London W1G 9LJ was a Director of the above named company on the day it went into administration. I give notice that I am acting and intend to continue to act in one or more of the ways to which Section 216(3) […]

More

The Harley Medical Group

This post concerns a matter returnable before the Irish High Court on 8th April 2013. A company named The Harley Medical Group (Ireland) Ltd. has applied to the court for an order compulsorily winding up the company. McGarr Solicitors, by order of the court, has been made a notice party to the application and has received copies of the application with its grounding affidavit and exhibits. We are notice parties because we act for a number of women fitted in […]

More

Faulty Beef Burgers

This is the appropriate editorial to replace that of the Irish Times of 2nd February 2013. The blame for Ireland’s faulty beef burgers lies with the relevant Irish meat processors and, maybe, with someone in Poland. The testing of the burgers showed two pertinent facts; the animal source of the burger content and the proportion coming from each animal type. Of the tested burgers, most contained trace elements of horse and/or pig. One did not. That one burger, from Silvercrest […]

More

How to read a newspaper

Noted in the Irish Times, 2nd February 2013, page 15.  “With no evidence of fraud…” This phrase means there was no evidence of deceit by Silvercrest Foods Ltd. There was in fact deceit. Tesco was deceived as to the sources of the burger meat; it described it as a breach of trust. My online dictionary defines “fraud” as: “a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities”

More

Sack the Minister

When the Food Safety Authority of Ireland tested a range of Irish frozen beef burgers, purchased from Irish and British supermarkets, it found evidence that they contained horse meat and/or pig meat. It found that the source of the offending meat was the respective manufacturer of the beef burger. In the case of Silvercrest Foods Ltd. almost 30% of one burger constituted horse meat. These facts were sufficient evidence to prosecute the various manufacturers (and the retailers). Prosecutions are necessary […]

More