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Back Civil$\_$responsibility$\_$case$\_$practice.docx

Christina and her boyfriend Nicholas visited perfect motors as they had seen an advert in their local paper. They were interested in a second hand Honda civic offered for $4$ thousand dollars. The salesman told them that the original engine had recently been replaced with a reconditioned engine and it was "good for many kilometres" and "capable of crushing $200k\frac{m}{h}"$ and had "only one owner". Nicholas bought the vehicle, paying for it by credit card. Christina then visited Perfect Motors shop outlet and bought some dry cell batteries. The batteries were manufactured by Best Buy Ltd$.$ she put them in her gold Rolex watch. Later that day Christina and Nicholas decided to take the car for a drive. They set out from Montreal with the intension of visiting friends in Toronto. Later that day they took Christina's young son Mark with them. Fifty km up the highway it became apparent that the engine was malfunctioning, so Nicholas left the highway at the nearest exit and took the car to a garage in reading.

The garage told Nicholas that the engine was suffering from a series of minor defects and it would be cheaper to replace it rather than repair it$.$ The proprietor commented that this was often a problem with reconditioned engines. However, he said that it will be safe for them to take the car back to Montreal, but he advised them to keep off the highway and not drive faster than $50k\frac{m}{p}h.$ The garage charged Nicholas $200$ hundred dollars for checking the car.

On the journey back to Montreal the watch batteries exploded, damaging the Rolex watch and injuring Mark seriously. They took him to the hospital, where they were told that the explosion had so damaged his left eye that his sight was impaired for life.

Christina and Nicholas returned to the Perfect Motors and Nicholas demanded his money back and reimbursement of the $200$ hundred dollars he paid to the garage in reading. Perfect Motors were only prepared to "tune the engine". They offered to do this free of charge.

When Christina told them about defective batteries they said, "That is not our problem, you will have to take it up with the manufacturers". Christina was not insured for either personal injury or damage to property and she approached Best Buy Ltd$.$ They claimed that they had a good system of quality control and that this was the first time anything like that had ever happened. They further claimed that no one in the trade could reasonably have expected that dry cell batteries of the type in question would explode.

Advice Christina and Nicholas of any possible legal rights and$/$or liabilities in civil they have. Please provide defences that each company can use