Assignment
Please identify all of the legal issues in the scenario above, including all of their elements (e.g. a contract is an agreement that is enforceable in court. It consists of an offer, acceptance, and valid consideration). Then explain how you drew your conclusions (i.e. the specific facts/situations that supported each of the elements of a contract and the torts).
Issues include contracts, negligence, various intentional torts, and intellectual property.
Issues
You have been approached for legal advice by all of those who might have a valid legal claim against another. Gladys has also asked you to sue Tim for all of the money he has earned from the agricultural company. Essentially, anyone who has a "cause of action" (a potentially valid legal claim against another) would like your assistance.
General Instructions
Please identify the actual and possible legal issues, including all of their elements (e.g. a "battery" is a harmful or offensive contact; a contract is an agreement that is enforceable in court, and is formed by a valid offer and acceptance supported by consideration). Then explain how the facts support the individual elements and your conclusions. For each issue or potential issue, please also explain the probable remedies.
Sometimes, the facts will clearly support a legal cause of action, and sometimes they may not. Consequently, explain how the facts and circumstances support each of the elements, or maypossibly support the applicable elements if the facts are not strong. Ignore facts that are obviously irrelevant (e.g. Gladys' music preferences).
You will note that there are issues concerning intellectual property rights, agency, and torts. It might be helpful for you to identify the issues by diagramming the various persons and legal problems before you prepare your response (but you do not need to include the diagram with your work).
All of the applicable law can be found in the information in the text and lectures. You do not need to refer to outside sources.
Please submit your work on Moodle or before the due date of June 16, 2017. As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Facts
One day, while listening to old "Beach Boys" music, Gladys invented a secret mixture of certain garden vegetables, spices, ground bark from a pine tree, odd-looking mysterious liquid she just discovered in an old bottle labeled "loose juice" in her grandmother's house, and liquid from a can without a label she purchased at an antique store in Medford Oregon.
It was Halloween, and she decided to mix all of the ingredients together to see if she could develop a special "monster's blend" to put out on the porch for the large "tricker-treater" crowd that came each year for Halloween candy and treats.
She was hoping that this year's blend would be just as creepy and bad smelling as it always was in the past (so bad that no one ever drank it because it was obviously a joke), but was surprised to notice that it actually had a very pleasant "punch like" odor. Distracted, tired, hurried, and not having time to change it back to the awful old "witches brew" odor, she simply left it outside.
Unfortunately, she forgot to bring in the large stack of cups she always left outside for the tricker-treatersas a joke when the "monster's blend" had a horrible odor that made no one want to drink it. She did remember, however, to place the "coin and money bowl" that she always placed next to the bowl , which had a special sign on it that said "pay here or the goblins will sue you in court for breach of contract." (Gladys thought this was funny because she was a retired lawyer.)
She also remembered to put out the exceptionally creepy "pop up monster" that always frightened those who came to her home, and sent many people running away until she shouted out to them that it was just a Halloween joke and nothing to worry about.
Unfortunately, Gladys had celebrated Halloween at a special all-night "pre-Halloween" party the night before, and was very tired. Just before the typical, especially large Halloween crowd arrived for tricker-treating that evening, she fell asleep and did not awake until Halloween was over the next day.
While she was asleep, large crowds of tricker-treaters came by. Many drank the special punch and most put money in the bowl out of a sense of obligation for Gladys' usual hard work and efforts. Unfortunately, all who consumed the beverage became ill to varying degrees.
Many found it necessary to seek medical attention at the only local medical clinic that was open that evening, which had hired a person dressed up as a scary Frankenstein at the door, and who took his job so seriously that he frightened away all of those who sought medical attention. Consequently, none of the ill tricker-treaterscame in, but instead went home with horrible indigestion. All recovered, but many could not go to work the next day and consequently lost income.
The doctors in the medical clinic were actually pleased to have a "patient free" night for a change, and did not bother to go outside to see what "Frankenstein" was up to. They were not involved in hiring the individual because that had always been the job of the medical clinic owner, who was out of town that evening.
Meanwhile, Tim, an innovative and curious scientist, who had visited Gladys' home that evening, decided to take a sample of Gladys' punch to test it and determine its ingredients. He was just curious about its contents. When he arrived at his own home, he spilled part of it on his tomato plants and was shocked and delighted to find the next morning that the plants had doubled in size, and produced perfectly delicious tomatoes. He was able to determine the formula for the punch and subsequently made millions of dollars when he sold the formula to an agricultural company.