Deck 10: Duress

Question 1

Conceptually, the law regards duress as a factor that undoes a contract rather than preventing it from existing in the first place?

Answer 1

True

Question 2

How does the law attempt to distinguish threats for the purposes of economic duress from what might be termed as 'ordinary commercial threats'?

Answer 2

No Answer

Question 3

To what extent does the existing case on duress weave a clear legal narrative in respect of this area of case law?

Answer 3

No Answer

Question 4

Does the test for what constitutes a 'threat' for the purposes of duress need to be better defined and clarified?

Question 5

Is the law wrong to only regard illegitimate acts as being primarily, if not exclusively, those that are illegal?

Question 6

To what extent do you feel that it is legitimate to recognise a concept of economic duress?

Question 7

Which of the following have been identified as key elements of duress?

A) Substantial social pressures
B) Pressure from close friends or family
C) Pressure that is illegitimate
D) Pressure so great that it amounts to a compulsion of the will

Question 8

Which of the following is authority for contention that illegal industrial action, or threats of it, can amount to economic duress?

A) The Southern Belle
B) The Great Sentinel
C) The Universe Sentinel
D) The Sentinel

Question 9

A successful claim for economic duress is first seen in which of these cases?

A) The Atlantic Baron
B) The Atlantic Pride
C) The Ocean Duke
D) The Pacific Baron

Question 10

In Barton v Armstrong which of the following was considered to amount to duress?

A) Threats to damage a managing director's reputation
B) Threats to injure a managing director
C) Threats to kill a managing director
D) Threats to destroy company property

Question 11

Unless they were to be awarded on a 'reliance' basis, damages for duress can never be claimed because no contract ever came into existence in the first place?

Question 12

To prove duress it is generally necessary to prove that the contract exists as a result of the duress itself, that it would not have existed otherwise?

Question 13

The availablity of a remedy for a duress does not reflect a judgment on the actions of a party but to the effect this has on the contract itself.

Question 14

Generally speaking an act that applies 'illegitimate pressure' can be a legal act or an illegal one - no distinction is made?

Question 15

The law recognises economic duress as well as physical duress?

Question 16

What remedies are available for duress?

Question 17

Arnold threatens to harm Sarah's children unless she agrees to buy her bread from his bakery. Would the resulting contract be:

A) Void for duress
B) Voidable for duress
C) Void for undue influence
D) Valid so long as she accepts

Question 18

Which of the following is not a requirement of establishing duress?

A) Threat
B) Vitiation of consent
C) Illegitimate threat
D) Malice

Question 19

Which case introduced the notion of 'economic duress'?

A) Barton v Armstrong
B) The Siboen and The Sibotre
C) Williams v Roffey
D) Fisher v Bell

Question 20

Which case discusses the notion of 'lawful act duress'?

A) The Atlantic Baron
B) Stilk v Myrick
C) Barton v Armstrong
D) CTN Cash and Carry v Gallaher

Question 21

What is the meaning of 'illegitimate threat'?

A) That the threat is to commit a criminal act
B) That the threat is used to obtain an inappropriate objective
C) That the threat is to commit an unlawful act
D) That the threat is morally wrong

Question 22

The absence of duress was important in convincing the court to accept a contractual modification in which case?

A) Williams v Roffey
B) Barton v Armstrong
C) The Siboen and the Sibotre
D) The Atlantic Baron

Question 23

A party that enters into a contract under duress, can lose their right to set the contract aside because:

A) Of delay
B) There was no duress to begin with
C) It would not be moral to render the contract void
D) They did not deserve the assistance of the court

Question 24

Which of the following factors is not relevant when deciding coercion according to Pao On?

A) Existence of protest
B) Existence of alternative courses of action
C) Presence of independent advice
D) Unfair treatment

Question 25

The remedies available for duress are?

A) Damages
B) Rescission
C) Damages and Rescission
D) Neither damages nor rescission are available

Question 26

Occidental Worldwide Investment Corp v Skibs A/S Avanti, The Siboen and The Sibotre (1976)was the first case to recognise what?

A) Duress as a result of physical threats
B) Duress as a result of blackmail
C) Economic duress
D) Duress as a result of a threat of industrial action

Question 27

In which case did Lord Scarman identify certain factors as being relevant to whether a person acted voluntarily or under duress?

A) Dimskal Shipping co SA v International #Transport Workers' Federation, The Evia Luck (1992)
B) CTN Cash and Carry v Gallaher (1994)
C) Pao On v Lau Yiu Long (1980)
D) Atlas Express v Kafco (1989)