BRAC University

BRAC Business School

BUS 202: Business Law
Section I & II

Take Home Assignment

(Case Study) Dead Line for Submission 31 July, 2011
[Note: For assignment students are required to form groups of not more then 4-7 students from each section and submit a comprehensive answer of any two of the followings as Take Home Open Book Assignment.]

Q.1.

BRAC Bank Ltd. maintains a posh and luxurious branch office in Gulshan, Dhaka under a Contract of Tenancy with the landlord of the premises. The tenancy in question is a long one (for a period of 10 years) because the BRAC Bank Ltd paid Tk. 50,00,000/- as advance to the landlord and also invested quite a sum of money for facing-up and internal decorations of their branch office too. Eventually BRAC Bank Ltd. received a notice from the Revenue department of Government of Bangladesh addressed to their landlord for payment of arrear revenue of Tk. 5, 05,000 that remain unpaid/due to the landlord for a considerable period of time and the notice also signifies that in the event of failure to pay in time the Government shall cancel the landlords lease and take position of the property (the branch office of BRAC Bank Ltd.) . Thus, the management of BRAC Bank Ltd. not finding the landlord in Bangladesh, immediately paid the arrear government revenue in time in order to avoid any untoward situation, eviction from the property and also to protect their own interest. Afterwards, when the BRAC Bank Ltd. ask for reimbursement from the landlord (by deducting the amount from monthly rent) landlord objected by saying that payment of arrear revenue by the BRAC Bank Ltd was irregular and if they did so, they did that on their account .The landlord further argued that neither the arrear revenue was due to the BRAC Bank Ltd. nor their exist any such obligation in the Contract of Tenancy that they (BRAC Bank) would have to pay for him. BRAC Bank Ltd. is eager to realize the money paid by them. Advice them.

Q. 2. Mr.Y, an elderly descendant from the Nabab family of Bogra, while in need of cash fund handed over an old sofa-set with ornamental engraved designs on it (in fact, an antic) made of Burma-teek wood to an Auction House at Dhaka to sell the same in auction on his behalf and informed them that the sofa-set should not be sold below an amount of Tk.

300,000/-. One Mr. Chowdhury (an antic collector having good knowledge of antic and their values) became interested on it and followed the items on different auction dates and found that nobody is bidding for the same for more than Tk. 1,00,000/- or so (not understanding the real value of it). But he still keeps on waiting and finally bought it for Tk. 120,000/- only knowing that reserved price for the said item was earlier fixed at Tk. 300,000/-. In terms of the auction, Mr. Chowdhury paid Tk. 120,000/- to the Auction House and took delivery of the sofa-set accordingly. While the Auction House asks the owner of the antic (Mr. Y) to take the sale proceeds of the auction sell, he (Mr. Y) refused to accept the same from the Auction House saying that they cannot sell the antic below the price set by him earlier (which is taka 300,000/-). But the Auction house replied that they have done nothing illegal and as such, they are not bound to give any formal reply to his allegations. The antic owner (Mr. Y) came to you for advice. Advise him.
Q. 3.

Mr. Chowdhury, a proprietor of a shoe factory, used to borrow money for his business on interest from a group of moneylenders. Business being dull from the very beginning, Mr. Chowdhury could never pay his debts in time to his creditors. Eventually, on the Tuesday, 6th, January 2004 he transferred all his valuable properties to his near relations in order to delay payments to the creditors. So, the creditors decided to go for legal action and thus filed a bankruptcy / insolvency petition against him on the Sunday, 9th January 2005. On the hearing of the said petition Mr. Chowdhury argued that the aforesaid petition of the creditors cannot be maintained under the provision of the Bankruptcy Act, 1997 and also demanded compensation for the same. - Advice, the creditors.

K. Shamsuddin Mahmood (Course Instructor)