Question: Is it unethical to give the interest

> Kim Panenka asked to borrow $4,750 from her sister, Kris, to make a mortgage payment. Kris deposited a check for that amount into Kim’s bank account. Hours later, Kim asked to borrow another $1,100. Kris took a cash advance on her credit card and deposit

> Thomas Rinks and Joseph Shields developed Psycho Chihuahua, a caricature of a Chihuahua dog with a “do-not-back-down” attitude. They promoted and marketed the character through their company, Wrench, LLC. Ed Alfaro and Rudy Pollak, representatives of Tac

> For employment with the Firestorm Smokejumpers—a crew of elite paratroopers who parachute into dangerous situations to fight fires—applicants must complete a series of tests. The crew chief sends the most qualified applicants a letter stating that they w

> Janine was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain and placed in an intensive care unit. Her doctor told hospital personnel to order around-the-clock nursing care for Janine. At the hospital’s request, a nursing services firm, Nursing Services Unlimited,

> Rocky Mountain Races, Inc., sponsors the “Pioneer Trail Ultramarathon,” with an advertised first prize of $10,000. The rules require the competitors to run 100 miles from the floor of Blackwater Canyon to the top of Pinnacle Mountain. The rules also prov

> Best Buy, a national electronics retailer, offered a credit card that allowed users to earn “reward points” that could be redeemed for discounts on Best Buy goods. After reading a newspaper advertisement for the card, Gary Davis applied for, and was give

> Operating out of an apartment in Secane, Pennsylvania, Hratch Ilanjian convinced Vicken Setrakian, the president of Kenset Corp., that he was an international businessman who could help Kenset turn around its business in the Middle East. At Ilanjian’s in

> Stephen Glass made himself infamous as a dishonest journalist by fabricating material for more than forty articles for The New Republic magazine and other publications. He also fabricated supporting materials to delude The New Republic’s fact checkers. A

> Mark Ramun worked as a manager for Allied Erecting and Dismantling Co., where he had a tense relationship with his father, who was Allied’s president. After more than ten years, Mark left Allied, taking 15,000 pages of Allied’s documents on DVDs and CDs,

> Facebook, Inc., launched a program called “Beacon” that automatically updated the profiles of users on Facebook’s social networking site when those users had any activity on Beacon “partner” sites. For example, one partner site was Blockbuster.com. When

> Methamphetamine (meth) is an addictive drug made chiefly in small toxic labs (STLs) in homes, tents, barns, and hotel rooms. The manufacturing process is dangerous, often resulting in explosions, burns, and toxic fumes. Government entities spend time and

> Internet giant Zoidle, a U.S. company, generated sales of £2.5 billion in the United Kingdom in 2013 (approximately $4 billion in U.S. dollars). Its net profits before taxes on these sales were £200 million, and it paid £6 million in corporate tax, resul

> Jason Trevor owns a commercial bakery in Blakely, Georgia, that produces a variety of goods sold in grocery stores. Trevor is required by law to perform internal tests on food produced at his plant to check for contamination. On three occasions, tests of

> Gary Peters fraudulently told an undocumented immigrant that Peters could help him obtain lawful status. Peters said that he knew immigration officials and asked for money to aid the process. The victim paid Peters at least $25,000 in wire transfers and

> George Castro told Ambrosio Medrano that a bribe to a certain corrupt Los Angeles County official would buy a contract with the county hospitals. To share in the deal, Medrano recruited Gustavo Buenrostro. In turn, Buenrostro contacted his friend James B

> Matthew Simpson and others created and operated a series of corporate entities to defraud telecommunications companies, creditors, credit reporting agencies, and others. Through these entities, Simpson and his confederates used routing codes and spoofing

> During the morning rush hour, David Green threw bottles and plates from a twenty-sixth-floor hotel balcony overlooking Seventh Avenue in New York City. A video of the incident also showed him doing cartwheels while holding a beer bottle and sprinting tow

> Jacqueline Barden was shopping for school clothes with her children when her purse and automobile were taken. In Barden’s purse were her car keys, credit and debit cards for herself and her children, as well as the children’s Social Security cards and bi

> Charles Byrd was in a minimum-security county jail awaiting trial. A team of sheriff’s deputies wearing T-shirts and jeans took Byrd and several other inmates into a room for a strip search without any apparent justification. Byrd was ordered to remove a

> Custom Copies, Inc., prepares and sells coursepacks, which contain compilations of readings for college courses. A teacher selects the readings and delivers a syllabus to the copy shop, which obtains the materials from a library, copies them, and binds t

> Rodney Klassen was employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Without the USDA’s authorization, Klassen gave Jim Ludy, a grape grower, plant material for two unreleased varieties of grapes. For almost two years, most of Ludy’s plantings bore

> The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) denied Raymond Gianelli’s application for a patent for a “Rowing Machine”—an exercise machine on which a user pulls on handles to perform a rowing motion against a selected resistance. The PTO considered the dev

> SilverEdge Systems Software hired Catherine Conrad to perform a singing telegram. SilverEdge arranged for James Bendewald to record Conrad’s performance of her copyrighted song to post on the company’s Web site. Conrad agreed to wear a microphone to assi

> United Fabrics International, Inc., bought a fabric design from an Italian designer and registered a copyright to the design with the U.S. Copyright Office. When Macy’s, Inc., began selling garments with a similar design, United filed a copyright infring

> Redwin Wilchcombe composed, performed, and recorded a song called Tha Weedman at the request of Lil Jon, a member of Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz (LJESB), for LJESB’s album Kings of Crunk. Wilchcombe was not paid, but was given credit on the album as a p

> Kayla, a student at Learnwell University, owes $20,000 in unpaid tuition. If Kayla does not pay the tuition, Learnwell will not allow her to graduate. To obtain the funds to pay the debt, she sends e-mails to people that she does not know asking them for

> The following situations are similar, but each represents a variation of a particular crime. Identify the crime and point out the differences in the variations. 1. Chen, posing fraudulently as Diamond Credit Card Co., sends an e-mail to Emily, stating t

> After the unauthorized release and posting of classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks.org, the U.S. government began a criminal investigation. The government obtained a court order to require Twitter, Inc., to turn over subscriber information a

> Kenneth Wheeler was angry at certain police officers in Grand Junction, Colorado, because of a driving- underthe-influence arrest that he viewed as unjust. While in Italy, Wheeler posted a statement to his Facebook page urging his “religious followers” t

> Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan and nine others were indicted in a federal district court on charges of conspiring to advance violent jihad (holy war against enemies of Islam) and other offenses related to terrorism. The evidence at Hassan’s trial included post

> Dartmouth College professor M. Eric Johnson, in collaboration with Tiversa, Inc., a company that monitors peer-to-peer networks to provide security services, wrote an article titled “Data Hemorrhages in the Health-Care Sector.” In preparing the article,

> Using special software, South Dakota law enforcement officers found a person who appeared to possess child pornography at a specific Internet protocol address. The officers subpoenaed Midcontinent Communications, the service that assigned the address, fo

> Austin Rare Coins, Inc., buys and sells rare coins, bullion, and other precious metals through eight Web sites with different domain names. An unknown individual took control of Austin’s servers and transferred the domain names to another registrant with

> When she was in college, Jammie Thomas-Rasset wrote a case study on Napster, the online peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network, and knew that it had been shut down because it was illegal. Later, Capitol Records, Inc., which owns the copyrights to a larg

> SeeYou, Inc., is an online social network. SeeYou’s members develop personalized profiles to share information— photos, videos, stories, activity updates, and other items—with other members. Members post the information that they want to share and decide

> CyberConnect, Inc., is an Internet service provider (ISP). Pepper is a CyberConnect subscriber. Market Reach, Inc., is an online advertising company. Using sophisticated software, Market Reach directs its ads to those users most likely to be interested i

> Why would someone post a negative review of a business that he or she had never patronized? Discuss the ethics of this practice.

> Suppose that Inhale had claimed a copyright in the design of a vodka bottle instead of a hookah. Would the result have been different? Why or why not?

> How should an invention be described in a patent application—in broad terms, specific terms, or both? Discuss.

> Suppose that Target had asked for a much broader range of Facebook material that concerned not just Nucci’s physical and mental condition at the time of her alleged injury but her personal relationships with her family, romantic partners, and other signi

> How does presuming that an indorsement is legitimate “without unambiguous evidence to the contrary” protect the transferability of a negotiable instrument?

> Suppose that the note had described the amount of the loan as “ONE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND AND NO/100 ($1,007,000.00) DOLLARS.” What would have been the result?

> If AOA’s suit had fallen within the four-year statute of limitations of the UCC’s Article 2, could the seller have filed its claim on either the contracts or the notes? Explain.

> If Webster had made the chowder herself from a recipe that she had found on the Internet today, could she have successfully brought an action against its author for a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability? Explain.

> How might the parties have avoided the dispute in this case?

> What is Mahendra’s best argument that the forum-selection clause was, in fact, binding on National? Discuss.

> Suppose that Blasini had made no payments under the contract for the sale of the Attic’s assets. How should that circumstance affect the distribution of the insurance proceeds?

> What are the consequences for Daimler of the decision in this case?

> Would Plaza have been bound to the forum-selection clause if it had signed the subscription agreement as Moonmouth’s director but had no other relation to the agreement? Discuss.

> When rescission is awarded, what is the measure of recovery? What did the recovery include in this case?

> How does a college basketball team’s record of wins and losses, and its ranking in its conference, support the court’s decision in this case?

> What are compensatory damages? What is the standard measure of compensatory damages?

> Should Kolodin’s role in bringing about the “no contact” stipulation through her request for a protection order have rendered the doctrine of impossibility inapplicable? Explain.

> The repairs to the bus cost $1,341.50. Who should pay this amount? Why?

> How does the parol evidence rule save time and money for the parties to a dispute and the court that hears it? Discuss.

> Was Cypress’s conduct unethical? Why or why not?

> Did Shivley’s misrepresentations rise to the level of fraud? Explain.

> At the time Holmes signed the release, Multimedia had not yet become a sponsor of the event. Should this fact have rendered the clause unenforceable? Explain.

> Could PAK Foods successfully contend that S.L.’s minority does not bar enforcement of the arbitration agreement because medical expenses are necessaries? Discuss.

> Why would any party agree to a covenant not to sue?

> How should an offeree indicate a definite lack of consent to a counteroffer?

> Assume that, instead of exchanging e-mails, the attorneys for both sides had had a phone conversation that included all of the terms to which they actually agreed in their e-mail exchanges. Would the court have ruled differently? Why or why not?

> How might the result in this case have been different if the court had allowed Wagner’s extrinsic evidence of the prior contract regarding Love Song to be used as evidence in this dispute?

> What did the amount of the jury’s award of $686,000 in damages represent? Explain.

> How did the objective theory of contracts affect the result in this case? Explain.

> Suppose that Case Western had tolerated Al-Dabagh’s conduct and awarded him a diploma. What impact might that have had on other students at the school? Why?

> Does an organization have an ethical obligation to secure a safe and harassment-free workplace for its employees? Discuss.

> Are Salvatore’s actions likely to affect his business’s ability to profit in the long run? Discuss.

> If Miller and Marcum had used smartphones and U.S. Cellular had stored its records in the “cloud,” would the outcome likely have been different? Explain.

> Why was Sisuphan convicted of embezzlement instead of larceny? What is the difference between these two crimes?

> Who is in the best position to evaluate the credibility of the evidence and the witnesses in a case? Why?

> Go to Appendix G at the end of this text and examine the excerpt of Case No. 3, Mills v. Chauvin. Review and then brief the case, making sure that your brief answers the following questions. 1. Issue: What document was at the center of the dispute in th

> Kodiak agrees to sell one thousand espresso machines to Lin to be delivered on May 1. Due to a strike during the last week of April, there is a temporary shortage of delivery vehicles. Kodiak can deliver the espresso makers two hundred at a time over a p

> Suppose that you are a collector of antique cars and you need to purchase spare parts for a 1938 engine. These parts are not made any more and are scarce. You discover that Beem has the spare parts that you need. You contract with Beem to buy the parts a

> Mountain Stream Trout Co. agreed to buy “market size” trout from trout grower Lake Farms, LLC. Their five-year contract did not define market size. At the time, in the trade, market size referred to fish of one-pound live weight. After three years, Mount

> Assume that you are manufacturing iPad accessories and that your business is becoming more successful. You are now considering expanding operations into another country. 1. One group will explore the costs and benefits of advertising internationally on

> Frances Morelli agreed to sell Judith Bucklin a house in Rhode Island for $177,000. The sale was supposed to be closed by September 1. The contract included a provision that “if Seller is unable to convey good, clear, insurable, and marketable title, Buy

> Review the discussion of the doctrine of mitigation of damages in this chapter. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of this doctrine?

> ABC Clothiers, Inc., has a contract with John Taylor, owner of Taylor & Sons, a retailer, to deliver one thousand summer suits to Taylor’s place of business on or before May 1. On April 1, John receives a letter from ABC informing him that ABC will not b

> The concept of substantial performance permits a party to be discharged from a contract even though the party has not fully performed her or his obligations according to the contract’s terms. Is this fair? Why or why not? What policy interests are at iss

> Jason Novell, doing business as Novell Associates, hired Barbara Meade as an independent contractor. The parties orally agreed on the terms of employment, including payment of a share of the company’s income to Meade, but they did not put anything in wri

> Melissa Faraj owns a lot and wants to build a house according to a particular set of plans and specifications. She solicits bids from building contractors and receives three bids: one from Carlton for $160,000, one from Feldberg for $158,000, and one fro

> To download a specific app to your smartphone or tablet device, you usually have to check a box indicating that you agree to the company’s terms and conditions. Most individuals do so without ever reading those terms and conditions. Print out a specific

> Go to Appendix G at the end of this text and examine the excerpt of Case No. 2, Gyabaah v. RivLab Transportation Corp. Review and then brief the case, making sure that your brief answers the following questions. 1. Issue: The dispute between the parties

> Pfizer, Inc., developed a new antibiotic called Trovan (trovafloxacinmesylate). Tests showed that in animals Trovan had life-threatening side effects, including joint disease, abnormal cartilage growth, liver damage, and a degenerative bone condition. Se

> Assume that you are a high-level manager for a shoe manufacturer. You know that your firm could increase its profit margin by producing shoes in Indonesia, where you could hire women for $100 a month to assemble them. You also know that human rights advo

> Cyber crime costs consumers millions of dollars every year. It costs businesses, including banks and other credit-card issuers, even more. Nonetheless, when cyber criminals are caught and convicted, they are rarely ordered to pay restitution or sentenced

> Ray steals a purse from an unattended car at a gas station. Because the purse contains money and a handgun, Ray is convicted of grand theft of property (cash) and grand theft of a firearm. On appeal, Ray claims that he is not guilty of grand theft of a f

> Peter Gowin was an employee of a granite countertop business owned by Joann Stathis. In November 2016, Gowin signed a promissory note agreeing to pay $12,500 in order to become a co-owner of the business. The note was dated January 15, 2016 (ten months b

> Clarence Morgan, Jr., owned Easy Way Automotive, a car dealership in D’Lo, Mississippi. Easy Way sold a truck to Loyd Barnard, who signed a note for the amount of the price payable to Trustmark National Bank in six months. Before the note came due, Barna

> Thao Thi Duong signed a note in the amount of $200,000 in favor of Country Home Loans, Inc., to obtain a loan to buy a house in Marrero, Louisiana. The note was indorsed “PAY TO THE ORDER OF [blank space] WITHOUT RECOURSE COUNTRY HOME LOANS, INC.” Almost

> Eligio Gaitan borrowed the funds to buy real property in Downers Grove, Illinois, and signed a note payable to Encore Credit Corp. Encore indorsed the note in blank. Later, when Gaitan defaulted on the payments, an action to foreclose on the property was

> Angela Brock borrowed $544,000 and signed a note payable to Amerifund Mortgage Services, LLC, to buy a house in Silver Spring, Maryland. The note was indorsed in blank and transferred several times “without recourse” before Brock fell behind on the payme

> Sandra Ford signed a note and a mortgage on her home in Westwood, New Jersey, to borrow $403,750 from Argent Mortgage Co. Argent transferred the note and mortgage to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., without indorsement. The following spring, Ford stopped making p

> Thomas Klutz obtained a franchise from Kahala Franchise Corp. to operate a Samurai Sam’s restaurant. Under their agreement, Klutz could transfer the franchise only if he obtained Kahala’s approval and paid a transfer fee. Without telling Kahala, Klutz so

> Abby Novel signed a handwritten note that read, “Glen Gallwitz 1-8-2002 loaned me $5,000 at 6 percent interest a total of $10,000.00.” The note did not state a time for repayment. Novel used the funds to manufacture and market a patented jewelry display

> Williams purchased a used car from Stein for $1,000. Williams paid for the car with a check (written in pencil) payable to Stein for $1,000. Stein, through careful erasures and alterations, changed the amount on the check to read $10,000 and negotiated t

> Muriel Evans writes the following note on the back of an envelope: “I, Muriel Evans, promise to pay Karen Marvin or bearer $100 on demand.” Is this a negotiable instrument? Discuss fully.

> Randal Schweiger bought a 2008 Kia Spectra EX from Kia Motors America, Inc., for his stepdaughter, April Kirichkow. The cost was $17,231, plus sales tax and other charges, and Schweiger financed the entire amount. April soon began having trouble starting

> Reefpoint Brewhouse in Racine, Wisconsin, contracted with Forman Awnings and Construction, LLC, for the fabrication and installation of an awning system over an outdoor seating area. After the system was complete, Reefpoint expressed concerns about the w