In January 2011 Department Store entered into a sales contract with Appliance Co to buy 100 refrigerators from the latter at a price of RMB 3,000 yuan/piece, total price being RMB 300,000 yuan. The payment would be made in two instalments: 100,000 yuan as advance payment to be paid after the conclusion of the contract, and the remaining 200,000 yuan to be paid in April 2011. Upon receiving the advance payment Appliance Co would deliver all the products. After the conclusion of the sales contract, Department Store made the first payment of 100,000 yuan and received all the products delivered by Appliance Co.
In the same month, Appliance Co intended to rent a space of 100 m2 from Department Store to exhibit its other appliance products. For this purpose the two parties entered into a rental agreement and agreed upon the following terms and conditions: the term of rental would be one year as from January to December 2011; the total rental would be RMB 400,000 yuan and be paid RMB 100,000 yuan quarterly within the first 10 days of January, April, July and October.
At the end of March 2011 Appliance Co sent Department Store a written notice, stating that it would set off its rental of RMB 200,000 yuan for the second and third instalments with the remaining price of 200,000 yuan for the refrigerators.
Required:
Answer the following questions in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Contract Law, and give your reasons for your answer:
(a) state the nature and different forms of set-off as presented by Appliance Co to Department Store; (4 marks)
(b) state the conditions to be met by Appliance Co when it was claiming the set-off of credit and debt with Department Store. (6 marks)
Mr Liu entered into an agreement to buy a second-hand car from Mr Feng at a price of RMB 50,000 yuan. After the conclusion of the agreement, Mr Liu paid the price and Feng delivered the car to Mr Liu. The two parties, however, did not register the sale of the car. Following the sale Mr Liu took the car to a repair shop to repair the air conditioner. After the completion of the repair and on the way home, a fire accident occurred due to the defect of the air conditioner and caused serious damage to the car.
Mr Liu returned to the repair shop claiming compensation for the defect of the air conditioner. The repair shop insisted that it was not liable for the fire accident and the resulting damage to the car. In addition, after retrieval of the data from the local vehicles registration centre, the repair shop found that the registered owner of the car was still Mr Feng, not Mr Liu. Under such a situation it refused to discuss the dispute any more with Mr Liu, on the ground that he was not a legitimate owner of the car. When Mr Liu asked Mr Feng to negotiate with the repair shop, Mr Feng was reluctant to do so on the ground that the transaction between them was over since he had duly delivered the car to Mr Liu.
Required:
Answer the following questions in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Property Law, and give your reasons for your answer:
(a) state the rule as to the passing of ownership for a car as a kind of movables, and the effect of the agreement between the two parties; (4 marks)
(b) state who should be the legitimate owner of the car; (4 marks)
(c) state whether the repair shop should be liable for the damaged car if the fire was caused by the defect of the air conditioner. (2 marks)