SCENARIO I

 Group A will act for Outback Burgers.

 Group B will act for Gordon Gorge and Sam Speculator.
 Each group will need to formulate a number of arguments supporting its client. Please
also try to refer to principles and cases mentioned in the presentations to support the
arguments.
 In the class, each group will have approximately 15 minutes to present its arguments.

PROBLEM

Outback Burgers is a chain of hamburger restaurants. In order to boost sales, it advertised on

radio and in newspapers that it was running a promotion whereby a coupon would be stuck to
the wrapper of every Double Wombat Burger and, if 50 coupons were collected, they could
be redeemed for a scratch ticket. It explained further:

‘Scratch a ticket with a gold car, present it to the Outback Burgers head office and
win the grand prize of a Toyota LandCruiser. Hurry, only for a limited time.’

Gordon Gorge was waiting the next day for the doors of his favourite Outback Burgers
restaurant to open. He ordered 50 Double Wombat Burgers and, after a marathon eating
session, redeemed the coupons for a scratch ticket. He then collapsed and had to be taken to
hospital to have his stomach pumped.

Naturally, not every customer had an interest in returning to Outback Burgers and buying a
Double Wombat Burger just for the chance to win a prize, and, as a consequence, many
tokens were thrown away with their wrappers. Sam Speculator scavenged through the bins of
his local Outback Burgers restaurant and pulled the tokens off discarded wrappers. Within a
short time he amassed 100 coupons. He went inside, redeemed the coupons for two scratch
tickets and was astounded to scratch two gold cars. Sam then drove straight to Outback
Burgers’ head office, where he showed the receptionist the winning tickets. While he was
waiting in the front room as she directed, another Outback Burgers worker appeared and
posted a notice on the front door of the office. Sam strolled over and read the notice, which
stated:

‘Due to a printer’s error, faulty scratch tickets were included in the Double Wombat
promotion. Outback Burgers regrets to advise that these tickets are null and void and
as a consequence it will not be honouring any prize claims. Outback Burgers
 apologises for any inconvenience and expects to announce an exciting new prize
competition soon.’

While Gordon was in hospital, Outback Burgers announced on radio and in newspapers that
it had discovered that there had been a printer’s error in its scratch tickets and that, instead of
only one winning scratch ticket in the promotion for a LandCruiser, every one in five scratch
tickets were winning tickets for LandCruisers. Outback Burgers was therefore immediately
declaring their promotion to be null and void and would not be honouring any prize claims.
While Gordon did not see or hear these reports himself, several nurses at the hospital did. He
overheard them casually talking about Outback Burgers’ difficulties and the cancellation of
the promotion.

Gordon scrambled for the ticket in his pants pocket, scratched it and found a gold car.
Figuring that he had heard nothing official from Outback Burgers, he discharged himself and
headed for the Outback Burgers’ headquarters with hopes of redeeming the ticket for a
LandCruiser. When he arrived, there was a crowd of angry people standing around the notice
on the front door, obscuring it. He therefore did not read it, and instead strode up to the
receptionist and presented his ticket.

It transpires that even Sam was preceded by another customer, whose claim Outback Burgers
had decided to honour since it had already bought the single LandCruiser that it had intended
to give away as the grand prize.

Advise Outback Burgers whether it is obliged to provide Sam and Gordon with the
LandCruisers they are claiming.