I’ve spent the last month researching a topic for a term paper that’s worth 50% of my grade. Today, with 25 hours to go, I’ve decided that it just bites the big one. I would use it to wipe my ass only after running out of mousepads, sandpaper, dollar bills, and my dog.
Sooooo…with 25 hours left before it’s due, I’m going to be spending most of my day today in the library reresearching the topics and finding some good ones to add in.
I could use your help guys! Give me some topics to put in this paper. I mean, you know what they say, “too many cooks make an excellent broth.” In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s what they say. Feh, I don’t know what anyone says anymore. If I knew that, I wouldn’t be in this jam.
So here’s my paper in a nutshell: a woman in columbia, MO had her house, which she leased, burn down from defective wiring in an outside porch fan. The firefighters created waterdamage and trampled her garden which she used to sell vegetables (or poison them and hand them out on halloween, whatever). Discuss the owner’s liability.
The best suggestion I’ve gotten so far is from another classmate: a sentence in 72pt font exclaiming “THIS IS @!*$ing STUPID!”
Anyone else wanna give me a suggestion on things to include?
Well, you maybe already have all this covered, but I’d want to know if the defect was something that the owner could have known about, should have known about, or caused himself (say, he installed the fan). I say this because if the wiring was defective when he bought the house, and professional inspections didn’t uncover it, and he had no other tip-off that the wiring was defective, then it doesn’t feel like he’s to blame. From a legal standpoint, that might not matter though–perhaps being the owner means the liability is his regardless. IANAL. In that case, I suppose it would be up to him (or his insurance company) to seek restitution from the wiring manufacturer, the person who installed the fan, the inspector who missed it, or whatever–that’s probably not up to the tenant to decide.
I also think she’d need receipts or something to show how much she generally earns in a season from that vegetable-garden livelihood.
Hey Ender–I’ve been meaning to say congrats on getting into law school–you may remember that a looong time ago I told you to go ahead and apply. Now you know the joy of 1L (bwahaha).
Anyway, your paper actually sounds like an exam question because it’s ripe with issues for spotting:
Does the tenant have rental insurance? If so, she needs to notify the insurer within the required time limit or lose her claim.
Does she sell the veggies out of the house? Does she have the proper business licenses?
You need to analyze the lease terms–running a business out of the house may void the lease. Additionally, depending on the amount of damage from the fire, you will get different results on whether the lease terminates, whether the landlord is required to repair, whether the tenant will have a claim against the landlord for failing to provide livable premises, whether rent abates in the interim, etc. Also, the lease will say who is responsible for installing things like the porch fan–if the tenant installed it, did she have permission pursuant to the lease terms?
Were the firefighters volunteers or a unit of the city government? Neither are likely to be liable since the trampling occurred while they were doing their duty, but you could find the governmental immunity statutes and analyze them.
Poisoning vegetables and handing them out on Halloween may well be a felony, unless she knew kids will not eat healthy Halloween treats.
Is the fan still under warranty? She will want to sue the manufacturer for failing to provide detailed instructions on how to safely wire for the fan, not just whoever did the wiring and the landlord.
Seriously, if you limit the topic to the landlord’s liability (which you probably should because otherwise there’s way too much to deal with), the place to start is the lease itself to see what promises the landlord made about the premises.
Good luck, and I will say in passing that I am very happy that I don’t have to do tort analysis anymore.
See, well, here’s the thing, technically, the honor code (which I never remembered signing but apparently I must have) precludes me from even asking the question. But…eh…lawyers aren’t honorable anyway, are they?
No, seriously though. humble servant and cranky, you’ve both hit really key issues. Ironically, humble a little less so if only because I need only deal with the owner’s liability, not anyone else’s. SO THERE! (oh, and thanks. Law school is hard, but still seems fun).
But, what I’m getting at is that EVERYONE is gonna bring those things up. I want new, inventive, imaginative arguments. Things that the professor says “Holy crap! I never would have thought of that in a million billion years! This man deserves an ‘A’ more than any other student I have ever taught.”
You know, arguments like “If the owner unleashed a horde of wild ferrets who chewed up the wiring, he could have reasonably foreseen that the fire would be started.” These are the arguments which are going to seperate my paper from everyone else’s and I’m calling on all your help!
I knows you’re just kiddin’ around, but you don’t want new, inventive, imaginative arguments if this is a torts paper–seriously, what with the need to find a duty, the need to find negligence/foreseeability, the need to weigh contributory negligence, the need to find proximate cause, just be clear–your teacher doesn’t want new and different, he wants you to show you can explain and apply very complicated rules in an understandable and clear manner. If you must dabble in idiosyncratic brilliance, give a paragraph or 2 on policy–what types of behavior does society want to encourage and how the aspects of tort law encourage or discourage such behavior, using the actions of the people in the hypothetical as examples. Also, because the terms of the lease would be so important in real life (a contracts question, not a tort question), you either want to assume away any applicable lease terms, or else include something explaining the interaction of tort and contract concepts in your situation.
Anyway, if the ferrets were “wild,” how did they come to be in the landlord’s possession? Hmmm? Or, were these really domesticated ferrets? If domesticated, the “one free bite rule” may apply, but if they are inherently wild, feral and dangerous, the landlord may have strict liability (another tort concept to be distinguished from your case!).
No, you don’t.
You want the arguments that everyone else is going to bring up - what will get you the A is if you discuss them more thoroughly and write more beautifully than anyone the professor has seen before. New arguments will get you nowhere. Use the next (um) 17 hours to proofread, re-write, re-style. Make sure that you’ve argued the hell out of both sides of everything that you’ve already got and have every stupid detail covered. And, like Humble Servant said, add some policy arguments. Where the rules come from, where they are now, and where you think they should go…
I don’t know law, but I do know teachers, and amarinth is right on the money with this. You’re not trying to win the case. You’re trying to prove you understand what your prof is teaching you. You need to do that to the utmost of your ability
Man! People post about a two legged dog and stories start flying out of every orifice, but mention the law and suddenly it’s the Mclaughlin group in here. I am completely burnt out right now. I seriously have spent at least 4 hours today in the library researching, of which I’ve used maybe 5 new cases in my paper. Wow.
I still need an introduction, a conclusion, I have to blue book the entire thing (which, if you don’t know what that is, it’s tedious and boring), and right now I have a 40 minute commute back home from the library, and I’m behind on my reading today.
And next week are finals, so tomorrow I won’t be spending relaxing. Happy happy joy joy!
12:45 to go…
Ender, Ender, Ender…I’ve seen you posting today in MPSIMS, the Pit and IMHO, and you are “behind on your reading today,” not to mention doing a countdown of time until your paper is due? And we’re not giving you enough stories? What, you didn’t like the stuff about the feral ferrets?
[mom] Stop posting. Stop researching–citing more cases will not get you as much of a return as clear writing and solid editing. And be sure to get a good night’s sleep, eat a good breakfast (no fast food coffee) and take your sweater. [/mom]
And dangit, I feel snowed if you really dragged me in on something you aren’t allowed to get help with. I was the frickin’ judic chair at my college, and my face will be mighty red if I contributed to your violating some pledge.
Well, cranky, technically you did. But in my own defense, I wasn’t expecting any serious replies to this thread. I just wanted some humor to lighten up the situation. It’s not MY fault you guys are all too smart for your own good.
Thank you all for your serious replies but I had already gotten (almost) all the information I needed. So…um…you provided no useful help whatsoever. There. How’s that? No one violated anything.
And Humble Servant…well, yeah, I came on here. But I’m not addicted to the boards or anything. I can stop anytime I want. Seriously.
But I did spend at least 4 hours in the library today and I’ve spent the last…hmmm…two hours writing and rewriting. I should be done in another hour. I think. Blue booking here I come!
Well, I turned my term paper in. I think it may still suck, but at least not as much as before. I’ll find out in about 3 weeks. There were topics I wanted to put in that I just could not find anywhere in the library. I could blame myself, but I find it much easier and more theraputic to scapegoat the professors for not letting me use Westlaw and Lexis to serach.
And Humble Servant, I thought you were kidding around with the “one free bite rule.” Today, however, I was reading my assignment on animals and strict liability. Lo and behold, there it is. Too bad my poodle has no teeth…
Oh, and according to Gallick v. Barto, ferrets are wild animals despite there being over 1 million of them as pets in the U.S.
