GasGas is a Spanish motorcycle manufacturer, specialising in off-road motorbikes. GasGas are best known for their extremely popular trials bikes, although they also make successful enduro and quad bikes.
Bell v Lever Brothers Ltd. [1931] ALL E.R. Rep. 1, [1932] A.C. 161 is a leading House of Lords decision on common mistake in contract law.
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During March of 1929 the Niger Company, which dealt in trade in the western African area, was merging with a rival company and wanted to get rid of two employees Mr. Bell and Mr. Snelling, who were hired as chairman and vice-chairman of the company. Chairman Francis D’Arcy Cooper on behalf of Lever Brothers made a deal with Bell and Snelling to leave the company in exchange for a sizable compensation (a “Golden handshake”). At the time of the agreement both parties believed that the employment contract had not been breached and thus the company would not have been able to terminate Bell and Snellings’ employment under any other circumstances. It was later revealed that there was in fact grounds for termination at the time of the agreement as Bell and Snelling had used their positions to make a secret profit for themselves.
D’Arcy Cooper — a senior partner with his uncle’s accountancy firm Cooper Brothers and staunch Quaker — became chairman of audit client Lever Brothers in the early 1920s. He was hired by Lord Leverhulme when the banks were threatening to call the loans on the company due to devastating losses incurred by the newly acquired Niger Company that crippled Lever Brothers. Cooper arranged financing from Barclays Bank under the condition that professional management would be put in place at the Niger Company. Ernest Hyslop Bell — a personal friend of D’Arcy Cooper and senior manager at Barclays — was hired in 1923 to be chairman of the Niger Company. Snelling was appointed vice-chairman. He was an independent tax consultant who had previously turned a large tax claim into a tax refund for Lever Brothers in 1921 at a time when the company was strapped for cash.
After Bell and Snelling reversed the Niger Company fortunes it was merged with its previously dominant competitor African and Eastern to form the United Africa Company. Bell had fully anticipated he would be asked to lead the newly merged company until Mr Cooper informed him otherwise which greatly upset Bell as he had left a safe job at Barclays Bank, had turned around the business to the point where it could be merged on equal terms with its main competitor and at 54 years of age was too old to get another position in the City. Over lunch at the Savoy Grill it was agreed they would get a sizeable compensation package that would allow Bell to retire.
Shortly after their resignation it was discovered that Bell and Snelling had traded on inside information obtained from the cocao cartel about impending price reductions by selling cocao forward for their personal account.
Lever brought an action claiming rescission of the compensation agreement because of mistake of fact.
At trial the jury found that Bell and Snelling’s illicit dealings breached the employment contract and that if the Lever Brothers had known they would not have entered into the agreement. Furthermore, the jury found that at the time of the agreement Bell and Snelling did not have in mind their illicit acts.
Lever Brothers pursued the case vigorously as it considered the behavior of Bell and Snelling simply unacceptable.
On appeal, the House of Lords found that there was no mistake and the contract could not be rescinded nor was it void on mistake.
The Court identified the mistake as a common mistake:
Effectively, the mistake must nullify or negative consent of the parties in order for the agreement to be void.
In order for the contract to be void by mutual mistake the mistake must involve the actual subject-matter of the agreement and must be of such a “fundamental character as to constitute an underlying assumption without which the parties would not have entered into the agreements”.
From the facts the Court found that the mistake as not sufficiently close to the actual subject-matter of the agreement. The parties got exactly what they had bargained for.
The case put a high standard on the finding of common mistake. This was criticized in the later cases written by Lord Denning such as in Sole v Butcher where Denning reduced the standard in order the make the agreement voidable on common mistake. Subsequently in Great Peace Shipping Ltd v Tsavliris Salvage (International) Ltd (2002) the Court of Appeal overturned Denning and set the standard for common mistake in line with the original Bell v Lever Brothers standard.
Wedge boots or wedgies are boots with a sole in the form of a wedge so that one piece of material, normally rubber, serves as both the sole and the heel. Wedge boots are more common for women and often have a sole that is much thicker at the back than the front, making it a high-heel shoe or boot. Men’s wedge boots, not normally called “wedgies”, usually have a low heel.
Some forms of wedge boots, called platform boots, have thick soles throughout.
A direct free kick is a method of restarting play in a game of association football (soccer) following a foul. Unlike an indirect free kick, a goal may be scored directly against the opposing side without the ball having first touched another player.
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A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team when a player commits a penal foul, for example pushing or tripping an opponent. However, if the offence was committed within the fouling team’s penalty area, the kick becomes a penalty kick.
The kick is taken from where the foul occurred, unless that was within the fouled team’s goal area, in which case it may be taken from anywhere within the goal area. The ball should be stationary prior to being kicked. Opponents must remain 10 yards (9.15 m) from the ball (and also outside of the penalty area if the kick is taken from within the penalty area) until the ball is in play.
The ball becomes in play as soon as it is kicked and moves, unless the kick was taken from within the kicking team’s penalty area, in which case it is in play once it has passed directly beyond the penalty area.
A goal may be scored directly from a direct free kick, but only against the opposing side (i.e. an own goal may not be scored). However, should the ball directly land in the own goal, a corner kick is awarded to the opposing team. A player may be penalised for an offside offence direct from a direct free kick.
The player who may take the free kick directly may either blast the ball as hard as he can, usually with the laces of the boot. This method is used by John Arne Riise, Frank Lampard, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Some players try to curl the ball around the keeper, with the inside of the boot. Free kick specialists like David Beckham, Juninho Pernambucano, Andrea Pirlo, Shunsuke Nakamura and Ronaldinho, employ this method, which can be very effective. Curling the ball is a hard skill to learn but when executed, can be the most effective way of scoring in a match. Free kick takers may also attempt to cross the ball to their centre backs or strikers in order to get a header on goal, especially if the position of the free kick is close to the wings.
Opposing players must retire the required distance as stated above. Failure to do so may constitute misconduct and be punished by a caution (yellow card).
It is an offence for the kicker to touch the ball a second time until it has been touched by another player; this is punishable by an indirect free kick to the defending team from where the offence occurred, unless the second touch was also a more serious handling offence, in which case it is punishable by a direct free kick or penalty kick, as appropriate.
Most teams have one or two designated free kick takers, depending on the distance from goal and the side of the field the free kick is to be taken from. The strategy may be to score a goal directly from the free kick, or to use the free kick as the beginning of a set play leading towards a goal scoring opportunity.
Often the defending side erects a “wall” of players standing side-by-side as a barrier to the shot. A kicker who has the skill to curl the ball around the wall is at a distinct advantage.
In some cases, two or more players will stand behind the ball, in order to mislead the opposition. The true kicker would only become obvious once the run-up had began (or once the ball was in the air in the case of a dummy). An example of this is the free-kick strategy of Manchester United - in that case, it is usually Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs who are standing behind the ball.
The Salzburgring is a 4.2km permanent race track in Austria, east of Salzburg.
This race track had been opened in 1968. Lying in a narrow, alpine valley, it has a rather simple layout, with two long straights plus the sweeping and fast “Fahrerlagerkurve” (”paddock turn”) at the bottom, and the narrow “Nockstein-Kehre” on the top. In spite of its simple layout, it garnered a fearsome reputation for the high speeds reached on the straights and the “Fahrerlagerkurve”.
It hosts mainly touring car races like the German ADAC Procar, DPM, DTC, STW, but several Grand Prix motorcycle racing, Superside and the Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix events were held there also. And there had been Oldtimer Grand Prix as well as during the last years a “Rupert Hollaus Memorial” organized by Ex-GP motorcycle and sidecar rider Wolfgang Stropek .
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The Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands (French: archipel d’Hochelaga), is a group of 234 islands at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers in the southwest part of the province of Quebec in Canada.
The largest island in the archipelago is the Island of Montreal, which is the main portion of the City of Montreal. The city also has jurisdiction over 74 smaller islands in the archipelago, most notably Île Bizard, Île Notre-Dame, Saint Helen’s Island, and Nuns’ Island.
The second-largest island in the archipelago is Île Jésus, which along with the Îles Laval and several smaller islands makes up the city of Laval.
Other islands include the Îles de Boucherville and Île Perrot.
The archipelago takes its name from Hochelega, an Iroquois settlement on Island of Montreal that was later settled by the French, growing to become the modern city of Montreal.