BLE 214-BE Fall 2013
Professor Buscaglia—Test #1
[Answers are due in class on Tuesday, October 22, 2013—answer all 4 questions]
You are having lunch at a restaurant. After you finish your meal, it starts to rain heavily. You forgot to bring your umbrella. You notice, however, that there are several umbrellas in a stand near the door. You decide to borrow one so that you can get home without getting soaked. Your idea is to use the umbrella to get home. Once there, you will get your own umbrella and then walk back to the restaurant and return the borrowed umbrella to the umbrella stand. Just as you are leaving your house with the borrowed umbrella, the police arrive and arrest you for stealing the umbrella from the restaurant. Can you be found guilty of larceny? Fully explain your answer.
You own a coffee shop. You take great pride in the coffee you serve, and always make sure that it is served nice and hot. One day while you are on vacation, the person you hired as manager of the shop decided to make a change in how the coffee is served. Several customers complained that the coffee was not hot enough, so the manager decided to turn up the heat on the coffee maker to its highest setting. Shortly thereafter, the manager heard a loud scream from a customer who said: “The lid fell of my cup and the hot coffee spilled on my lap. I have been burned.” The customer was rushed to the hospital where she was treated for third degree burns over 16% of her body. The customer decides to sue YOU for the cost of her medical care and for pain and suffering. What is the basis for her lawsuit and will the customer win? Fully explain your answer.
Mrs. Paulsen was standing on the railroad platform at South Station in Boston. As one of the Commuter Rail trains was pulling into the station, she noticed that smoke was coming from one of the wheels on the train. As the train got closer, the wheel started on fire. A spark from the fire fell on a suitcase of one of…