Intro to Business Law Paper 1
Jonathan Ejemplo
Prof. Moersen
Business Law
Spring 2015
Intro to Law Paper 1
Suppose you become a Virginia state judge. A case comes into your court and you are looking for the rule to apply to the facts of the case. After examining all constitutions, statutes, regulations, and treaties, you find no rule addressing the issue in the case.
Where will you find the rule to decide the case? By looking to the common law.
Suppose no earlier cases decided the issue. Now what do you do? You write the rule, based on the morals values and customs of society.
Suppose cases from North Carolina and California deal with the precise issue. Must you follow them? No, they are no from the Virginia court hierarchy.
Suppose those cases differ. Which are you more likely to follow? North Carolina, because their morals, values and customs are more like those of Virginias.
Plaintiff took a prescription drug until it was ordered off the market because tests showed it could cause heart problems. Plaintiff complained that she suffered “significantly increased risk of serious injury and disease” from the drug and sued the manufacturer. Assuming Plaintiff can prove the manufacturer carelessly tested and labeled the drug, what is the manufacturer’s best defense? Insanity.
A Festival cruise ship is full of passengers when a large meteor crashes into it. Some passengers are injured and argue Festival could have installed an air defense system that would have shot down stray meteors and thereby prevented their injuries. Suppose they are right, what is Festival’s best defense?