PLS 201-TORTS

Assignment 1

Gabriel’s Woes

You work for the Law Firm of Smith, Smith and Jones, after the intake

interview with the client your supervisor has asked you to prepare a report in which you discuss what torts may have been committed by Gabriel and by others involved. For each tort, cover as many of the following points as are relevant.

Using the text as a guide, list as many torts as you think might have occurred; against whom and who may be liable.

Use the following format:

Gabriel vs Karen Assault Broom in front of head

Facts taken from the client intake interview:

Gabriel Farrell works for the ABC Singing Message Service in  this state. He delivers messages in person by singing the  messages that are delivered. Last week he was scheduled to sing a  message to Karen Gregory. When he arrived at her address and started singing the message, she told him to stop immediately.  Holding a broom several feet in front of his head, she screamed, "If you don’t stop by the time I count to ten, I’ll knock all the teeth out of your foul-sounding mouth!" Gabriel was very afraid, and began to sweat and quiver in fear. He stopped singing and ran away before her count got to three.  Out of breath, Gabriel decides to go into a restaurant.   After about an hour, he sees Karen Gregory come in. She sits in  the booth next to his, but does not see him. Gabriel lights up a cigarette and starts walking out. As he goes by Karen’s booth, he blows a puff of smoke in her face.  Karen gets up to go to the bathroom. She must go through two doors to get to the bathroom. The first door (door #1) takes her to a small hail where there is a pay phone. The second door (door  #2) takes her from the small hail to the bathroom itself. When she goes inside the bathroom, Gabriel rushes over and locks door #1 by turning a small latch on the front of this door. As a result, no one can get out of the small hall or the bathroom area. When Karen comes out of the bathroom, she decides to make a call. She is on the phone for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, another customer tries to use the bathroom. Upon finding door #1  locked, he simply unlocks it. When Karen gets off the phone, she  walks back to her table, never having been aware of Gabriel’s actions.  Gabriel goes to his lawyer, Helen O’Roarke, Esq. who works  at the Smith & Smith law firm. He tells O’Roarke that he wants Karen Gregory arrested for selling drugs. After further questioning, it is clear to O’Roarke that Gabriel has no evidence that Karen committed the crime of selling drugs. In spite of  this, O’Roarke explains to Gabriel how he can go about bringing a  prosecution against Karen for the crime of selling drugs. Gabriel  takes O’Roarke’s advice and files a criminal complaint against  Karen. Karen is arrested, but is eventually found not guilty  after a jury trial.  Gabriel calls Karen and asks her if she would like to declare a truce. While still angry, Karen says that she will consider it. During the conversation, Karen tells Gabriel that she is trying to sell her computer. "It’s an absolutely superb modern computer, which I will sell for $150." (She knew, however, that the computer was about ready for the trash can.) Gabriel, who has been looking for a computer, agrees to buy it. He goes to get it and gives her the $150. When he plugs in the computer at home, he discovers that it works very poorly and that most of its features are now obsolete. While typing one day on the keyboard,9 one of the keys pops out of the keyboard and hits him in the eye, causing severe injury. Gabriel finds out where Karen lives. He goes to the Street in front of her house. From his car, he throws a brick toward the second floor window. The brick misses the window, goes over the house and into a public park behind Karen’s house. No one was in the house at the time. Before he drives away, he sees a newspaper boy coming up the street about to deliver a paper to Karen’s house. As the boy approaches, Gabriel says to him, "I’ll take that for Ms. Gregory." The boy gives the paper to Gabriel who immediately throws it down the street sewer. Later the newspaper boy tells Karen what Gabriel did to her paper. Furious, she calls Gabriel’s home and pretends to be one of the local sheriff’s deputies. She tells Gabriel that his mother as just been hit by a car, his father has just shot his brother, and his house has just burnt down. All of these statements are lies. Upon hearing them, Gabriel has a nervous breakdown for which he is hospitalized for a two-week period. While Gabriel is in the hospital, Karen goes to the ABC Singing Message Service where he works and posts a sign on the bulletin board that says "Gabriel Farrell was arrested three times for arson 10 years ago." This statement is true. Many of his co-workers see this sign. When Gabriel saw the sign, he took it down, crossed out his own name, and inserted Karen’s name so that the sign now read, "Karen Gregory was arrested three times for arson 10 years ago." This statement is not true. He takes the sign to the apartment building where Karen lives and hangs it in the hallway. Only one of her neighbors sees it before Karen takes it down. One night after work,briel is driving home in his truck.0 (His car registration had recently expired, but Gabriel intended to renew it the next day.) It is late at night and Gabriel is very tired. A thick fog suddenly appears. Yet he wants to get home soon in order to feed his cat, so he increases his speed. Just in front of a stop sign, Gabriel burps and hiccups. This causes him to push his foot forward a little on the accelerator, which causes the car to lunge forward. He rear-ends a truck driven by Linda who is pregnant. (She miscarries soon after the collision.) Linda had a poisonous spider in the rear of her truck. The spider got out of its cage and bit Gabriel while he was talking to Linda about the accident. While driving home after the accident, Gabriel decides to make a call on his cellular car phone, which he recently bought from Sears Roebuck Co. (The phone was manufactured by Nizzon, Inc.) While dialing the phone, Gabriel is injured when the entire cellular unit explodes in his face due to a defect in the design of the phone system.

Although your work will be collected, we will discuss this more thoroughly in class.