LAWS1012 TORTS – SEMESTER 2, 2023
SHORT RELEASE ASSIGNMENT
Due Date: 19 September 2023, 9am
INSTRUCTIONS
1. This assignment is a compulsory assessment task worth 30% of your final mark. Students must make a
satisfactory attempt to pass the unit of study.
2. The assignment question should be treated as confidential. You must not distribute this paper to anyone,
or share it with anyone in any way, either before or after the due date.
3. Please note that you are not permitted to work collaboratively on this assignment. Your answer is to be
entirely your own work. Your assignment will be subject to analysis by software to detect similarities with
the work of other students. To be clear: do not discuss the assignment topic with any other student, and
do not show your draft or final assignment to any other student until results are released. It is important
that you generally understand and comply with the University’s Academic Integrity requirements (LINK).
Do not incorporate text from course notes you have not prepared personally into your response.
4. Word Limit: A maximum word limit of 1500 words applies. Students must provide a word count at the end
of their assignment, either by noting the number of words used or including a screenshot of the word
count as shown in Microsoft Word. The total word count excludes footnote numbers; references/citations
in footnotes; any cover page material; and any text indicating your word count. It must include body text;
headings and sub-headings; quotations; and any text other than numbers and citations in footnotes.
Misrepresentation of your word count may be treated as academic dishonesty. A piece of assessment
which exceeds the prescribed word limit will attract a penalty of 10% of the total marks available for the
piece of assessment for every 100 words, or part thereof. The word limit will be strictly applied; there is no
leeway.
5. Referencing: All sources relied upon should be cited in footnotes compliant with the Australian Guide to
Legal Citation (4th ed, 2018) (LINK). Because references/citations in footnotes do not count towards the
word limit, there is no excuse for corner-cutting in this regard. A bibliography is not required.
6. Preparing & Submitting Your Assignment Online: You must submit your assessment as a Word file (.doc,
.docx). Submissions made in other formats (eg, .pdf) will not be marked and you will receive zero for the
task. Please note that corrupt files with garbled text will not be marked. Use your SID as the filename, eg,
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SID_AssessmentName_LAWS1012. Do not include your name anywhere on your file, only your SID. Put
your SID and the unit of study code/title on each page of your assignment in a header or footer, and
number each page of your assignment. If you have multiple files, please merge all your files into one file
before submitting. Once submitted, you will see a confirmation note that your assignment has been
submitted. Canvas will not automatically email you a digital receipt so please check for the confirmation
note.
7. Late Submissions: The late submission of a piece of assessment without an approved extension will attract
a penalty of 10% of the total marks available for the piece of assessment per calendar day or part thereof.
For example, a submission at 2pm or 11:59pm on the date of submission will attract a 10% penalty. A
submission at or after 12 midnight will attract a 20% penalty, and so on. Late penalties will be strictly
applied; there is no grace period.
8. Assessment Criteria: The criteria to be applied in the marking of the assignment are set out in the Unit
Outline on Canvas.
9. The Aims of this Assignment: This is a problem-based assignment and not a research task. It is designed
to test your problem-solving ability – ie, your ability to identify and analyse legal issues arising from a
hypothetical fact scenario. It aims to test your understanding of the cases and legislation set out in the
reading guide, and discussed in classes, although the best answers may follow up issues by reference to
recommended texts and other scholarly sources as appropriate (eg, where they offer an opinion on a
contested point of law). You should answer with reference mainly to primary sources (ie, cases and
legislation) and not to secondary sources. It is inappropriate to quote or cite lectures or the reading guide.
You should support your answer with pinpoint citations to relevant paragraphs or pages of sources relied
upon.
10. Coverage: This assignment seeks to test your understanding of aspects of the material listed in the reading
guide under topics 2-7 inclusive, and your response should only address principles of tort law related to
these topics. Not all material in these topics will necessarily be relevant to the problem. The identification
of relevant issues is a key skill being tested in this assessment. As indicated by the assignment question,
you should not consider the tort of negligence (ie, the material in topic 8 onwards).
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QUESTION
University student Boyd decides to host a party in the backyard of his Sydney home on the night of Halloween.
Before the party begins, he connects a motion sensor to a speaker in his front yard, so that as they walk up the
front path to his door, guests are greeted by a recording of Boyd rasping, ‘Say your prayers, fool – time for your
demise!’ Some of Boyd’s guests are startled when the recording is triggered, but they quickly realise it is him
and find it very amusing.
All of Boyd’s guests arrive and proceed to the backyard. While the party is going on, Wynn, who is on his way
home after work, walks along Boyd’s street. It is a dark night, and the street and footpath are poorly lit. As
Wynn is passing Boyd’s house, the motion sensor is triggered by the movement of a plant in the wind.
Frightened by Boyd’s words, and not knowing where the voice is coming from, Wynn bolts down the street. He
trips over his own feet and sprains his ankle, before getting up and limping away.
Meanwhile, two of Boyd’s guests, Arlo and Dewey, get into an increasingly testy argument about whether
celebrating Halloween in Australia represents a blind surrender to American cultural imperialism. This
culminates in Arlo calling Dewey a ‘sheep’ and a ‘moron’. Dewey’s response is to put up his fists and start
dancing around, saying: ‘Moron, am I? Come on, let’s settle this with a slap fight! I’ll take ya! I’ll take ya!’ He
then slaps Arlo across the cheek with moderate force. Arlo immediately punches Dewey in the face, breaking
his jaw and sending him sprawling. Seeing this from across the yard, Dewey’s girlfriend Ava charges at Arlo
from behind and shoves him into the backyard fence. Arlo sustains a head wound, and slumps to the ground.
‘Weak gutted dog!’ Ava yells at Arlo, spitting on him for good measure.
Following these events, other guests step in and calm the situation down; there are no further hostilities. The
party breaks up and Arlo and Dewey are separately driven to hospital for assessment of their injuries.
Disappointed by the sour note on which the party has ended, Boyd decides to play a Halloween trick on
someone. He goes out with a high-powered torch and wanders around the neighbourhood until he sees a
figure walking towards him from some way away. Boyd hides behind a parked car. The figure turns out to be
Mags. When he hears Mags approach to within a couple of metres, Boyd turns on the torch and shines it
straight into her eyes. Mags is so shocked that she drops her infant son Coover, who she was carrying in her
arms, on his head. Boyd did not realise that Coover was there when he spied Mags from a distance. Mags
starts screaming and Boyd runs away.
Wynn, Arlo and Dewey all incur significant medical expenses in consequence of the injuries noted above.
Coover sustains a serious head injury and is hospitalised for many weeks. Mags suffers no bodily injury but
develops post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of what happened to Coover.
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Discuss any claims in tort potentially available against Boyd, Arlo, Dewey and Ava on these facts, including any
damages that may be recoverable. However, do not consider negligence as a cause of action.