Assume that you are a lawyer advising your client, Richie Harris. Read the below facts and then write a memo according to the instructions that follow.
Facts
Richie and Amy played basketball in a public court near the West Side Highway. After they finished playing, Amy waited for the pedestrian light to turn green and crossed the highway to walk home. She then realized that she had left her basketball behind, so she yelled to Richie across the highway and asked him to please bring her the ball. Instead of waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green and to carry the basketball to Amy on the other side of the highway, Richie yelled “Here it comes!” and attempted to throw the ball across the highway to Amy. Unfortunately, Richie did not throw the ball hard enough and it hit the head of Townes who was wearing a helmet and legally riding a motorcycle on the highway at a speed of 35 miles per hour. As a result of the impact of the basketball, Townes’s motorcycle crashed to the ground, slid sixty feet and knocked over Lucille who was riding her bicycle (also legally) in the bike lane adjacent to the highway. Both Townes and Lucille suffered severe bodily injuries.
Richie then accompanied Townes and Lucille to the emergency room of a local hospital. In the hospital’s waiting room, Richie sat down next to Ernesto who was watching an ice hockey game on the TV mounted on the wall. Richie grabbed the remote control from the table and changed the TV’s channel to a soccer game. Ernesto politely asked Richie to change it back to the hockey game. Richie became very angry and threw the remote control at Ernesto injuring him in the face as he tried to get out of the way and causing him to drop the coffee cup that he was holding in one hand and to drop the cell phone he was holding in the other hand. His coffee then spilled on Julia who was sleeping in a chair next to Ernesto. Julia suffered burns as a result. Richie then grabbed Ernesto’s cell phone and ran home.
When Richie got home, he looked through Ernesto’s cell phone (which was not protected by a password) and read his recent emails, including those between Ernesto and his boss regarding Ernesto’s annual performance review. Richie forwarded these emails to his own phone and then posted exact copies of them on a popular social media website. He also wrote his own false post on the website, claiming, without any evidence, that “Ernesto was fired from his job for drinking alcohol during working hours.” Many of Ernesto’s friends and colleagues saw these posts.
Instructions:
Richie now seeks your legal advice regarding these two separate incidents. As Richie’s lawyer, please write a single memo in 800 words or less. It should use standard business memo form (To, From, Re:, Date) and language that you believe is appropriate for a formal legal communication. You may choose to be creative but the bulk of your grade will be based on your legal analysis.
You should answer the following questions:
1. Can Townes recover from Richie for Richie’s negligence? Explain fully; and
2. Can Lucille recover from Richie for Richie’s negligence? Explain fully; and
3. Can Ernesto recover from Richie for Richie’s intentional tort or torts? Explain fully; and
4. Can Julia recover from Richie for Richie’s intentional tort or torts? Explain fully
You may use any textual sources that you like but your answers must be consistent with our class discussions and our “Business Law Today” textbook.
