QUESTIONS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE 3 Marcella Marconi (Plaintiff) -v- Sam & Joe Pty Ltd (Defendant) [1] In 2009, Sam Alexander and Joe Patterson, who were high school friends, incorporated a company called Sam & Joe Pty Ltd. At the time they were 19 years old. Sam and Joe each had authority to act on behalf of the company. The company was set up because Sam and Joe, who were great admirers of Italian food and culture, decided to establish and run an Italian restaurant called Milan Bar & Food, in a building which was part of the Northbank complex in Brisbane city. Northbank was a large park on the northern bank of the Brisbane River, which included a number of buildings that Northbank leased for retail shops, restaurants, bars, and cafés. [2] The Northbank Corporation owned and controlled the land and all the buildings in the Northbank complex. Sam & Joe held a lease with Northbank Corporation over a part of a building in a prime area of Northbank, close to public transport, the Northbank car park and with extensive river views. [3] In 2011 Sam & Joe Pty Ltd acquired the catering rights at the Redsand Bay Yacht Club. By 2012, Sam and Joe had found it difficult to maintain both Milan Bar & Food and their business at the Yacht Club, so they decided to sell Milan Bar & Food in order to concentrate on catering at the Yacht Club. They considered using an agent to sell Milan Bar & Food, as they had no experience in selling a business, but decided that they would try to sell it themselves first, to save the commission. [4] In 2012, Marcella Marconi was 55 years old. Since she emigrated from Italy in 1992, she had been a housewife. She was a brilliant cook, and people often told her she should open a restaurant. She understood spoken English and spoke it fairly well but with a heavy accent, but with family and her friends she always spoke Italian. She could not write or read English. Marcella’s husband, Domenico died in December 2011 and Marcella inherited $450,000 from him. [5] In 2012, Marcella decided that she would like to use the money she had inherited from Domenico to buy a small business. She discussed this with her 23 year-old daughter, Sophia, who found an advertisement for the sale of Milan Bar & Food and showed it to Marcella. Sophia contacted Sam and Joe and arranged to meet them. [6] Marcella told Sophia she was concerned about the business side of things, especially dealing with documents written in English. Sophia, who was studying business, said that she and her brothers would help Marcella. Marcella’s eldest son, Fabrizio, had been an accountant before he became a priest, and Marcella often asked him for his advice, particularly in financial matters, although she did not always follow it. She relied on him more heavily after Domenico’s death. However, they had had a serious disagreement on a question of theology in July 2012, and their relationship had become strained as a consequence. [7] Marcella’s second son, Alfredo, was the Di ...