Matters of Law and Matters of Ethics in Business Situations

Coursework Instructions:

Competencies
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
Apply relevant aspects of law to current business situations
Differentiate between matters of law and matters of ethics in business situations
Scenario
The Friendly Dawg is a retail pet supply store owned by Dave Dawgs. Dave has worked in the store since high school and took over running the store after his father died two years ago. Originally the store sold only pet food and supplies, such as animal food, bird cages, water bowls, pet beds, and so forth. Upon taking ownership, Dave added fish tanks with fish for sale. Recently he built a kennel and cages in a former storage area in the rear of the store in order to sell live animals, such as snakes, birds, dogs, and cats. Landlord Lou came by during renovations and asked what was going on. One of Dave’s employees told Lou that The Friendly Dawg was expanding its inventory and needed the space. Landlord Lou told the employee, “Very exciting! Good luck!”
A few weeks later, landlord Lou began receiving complaints from the neighboring tenant, the Sunshine Yoga studio, that the noise from the dogs and parrots was very disruptive.
The signed lease between Dave Dawg’s deceased father and Lou describes the business as a pet supply store only and does not mention selling live animals. The lease specifies a rent in the amount of $500 a month. Sunshine Yoga does not have a written lease. The owner of Sunshine Yoga, Jasmine, met Lou one night in a bar two years ago where he verbally offered to rent her the space for $300 a month. Jasmine claims that landlord Lou told her that night that she could rent from him forever and that he would never evict her.
Lou called Dave, asking him to quiet the animals. Dave said he would try, but the complaints from Jasmine continued. Dave also demanded that Lou improve the air-conditioning system, claiming it was too hot in the rear of the store for his animals and it was causing them to become agitated. Landlord Lou refused, claiming that air-conditioning was not meant to cool that area and it was not his job as landlord to take care of live animals.
Dave stopped paying his rent, claiming that he was not obligated to do so because Lou was breaching his obligation under the lease to maintain the property in good repair. The next day, a dangerous snake escaped through the air vents and slithered into the neighboring yoga studio, frightening Jasmine, the owner, such that she had a heart attack.
After recovering, Jasmine stopped paying her rent, claiming that the premises were unsafe due to the presence of wild animals. She also claimed that she has been very depressed and anxious as a result of the ongoing situation. And she contends that she has lost clients because of the noise coming from The Friendly Dawg.
The Friendly Dawg has been a good tenant, enjoys a strong customer base, and pays more in rent than Sunshine Yoga. Sunshine Yoga has always been late with rent, and Jasmine constantly bothers Lou over minor issues.
Directions
Write two short papers—one on contract law and one on tort law.
Contract Law
Evaluate the potential rights, claims, defenses, obligations, and remedies for each party from the perspective of contract law. Determine whether landlord Lou has a right to evict either party. Use reliable resources, such as the textbook and other course resources, to support your evaluation. Specifically, include the following components in your evaluation:
Contract between The Friendly Dawg and landlord Lou
Analyze the scenario to determine whether a valid contract still exists between The Friendly Dawg and landlord Lou.
Explain the elements of a valid contract, and identify which contract elements, if any, exist between The Friendly Dawg and landlord Lou.
Analyze the potential rights, claims, defenses, obligations, and remedies available to both landlord Lou and The Friendly Dawg in this scenario.
Support your analysis by referencing specific legal principles or laws.
Contract between Sunshine Yoga and landlord Lou
Analyze the scenario to determine whether a valid contract still exists between Sunshine Yoga and landlord Lou.
Explain the elements of a valid contract, and identify which contract elements, if any, exist between Sunshine Yoga and landlord Lou.
Analyze the potential rights, claims, defenses, obligations, and remedies available to both landlord Lou and Sunshine Yoga in this scenario.
Support your analysis by referencing specific legal principles or laws.
Grounds to evict
Describe whether, based on your analysis of each party’s rights and obligations, landlord Lou has the grounds to evict either The Friendly Dawg or Sunshine Yoga.
Support your conclusions by referencing specific legal principles or laws.
Include a References section and cite your sources using APA style.
Tort Law
Evaluate the implications of tort law in this scenario and what legal claims Sunshine Yoga might have. Use reliable resources, such as the textbook and other course resources, to support your evaluation. Specifically, include the following components in your evaluation:
Tort law: Define what tort law is and how torts may affect business practices.
Relevant tort laws: Identify tort laws relevant to the scenario, specifically the incident involving the snake.
Legal claims
Identify what legal claims Sunshine Yoga might have against The Friendly Dawg and landlord Lou, based on those tort laws and related legal principles.
Support your conclusions by referencing the applicable tort laws and related legal principles.
Include a References section and cite your sources using APA style.
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit the following two papers:
Contract Law
Your submission should be a 3- to 5-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.
Tort Law
Your submission should be a 2- to 4-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.
Project Three Rubric
Criteria Exemplary (100%) Proficient (85%) Needs Improvement (55%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Contract Law: The Friendly Dawg: Valid Contract Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Accurately explains elements of a valid contract and which contract elements exist between the parties Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accuracy in content, support for analysis from relevant resources, and thoroughness of analysis Does not attempt criterion 10
Contract Law: The Friendly Dawg: Potential Rights, Etc. Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Accurately explains what the parties’ potential rights, claims, defenses, obligations, and remedies are, with reference to specific legal principles or laws Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accuracy in content, support for analysis from relevant resources, and thoroughness of analysis Does not attempt criterion 10
Contract Law: Sunshine Yoga: Valid Contract Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Accurately explains elements of a valid contract and which contract elements exist between the parties Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accuracy in content, support for analysis from relevant resources, and thoroughness of analysis Does not attempt criterion 10
Contract Law: Sunshine Yoga: Potential Rights, Etc. Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Accurately explains what the parties’ potential rights, claims, defenses, obligations, and remedies are, with reference to specific legal principles or laws Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accuracy in content, support for analysis from relevant resources, and thoroughness of analysis Does not attempt criterion 10
Contract Law: Grounds to Evict Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Describes whether there are grounds to evict either party, and references specific legal principles or laws Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include more detailed and logical contract analysis on grounds for eviction, and support from relevant resources Does not attempt criterion 20
Tort Law: Definition Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Accurately defines what tort law is and includes a description of how torts may affect business practices Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accuracy in content and insight into how tort law may affect business practices Does not attempt criterion 10
Tort Law: Relevant Tort Laws Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Accurately identifies the tort laws relevant to incident involving the snake Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accuracy in content, and insight into relevance of tort laws Does not attempt criterion 10
Tort Law: Legal Claims Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Clearly explains and identifies legal claims Sunshine Yoga might have against The Friendly Dawg and landlord Lou based on specific tort law and related legal principles Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include more detailed and logical analysis of relevant tort law and related legal principles, and more support by relevant resources Does not attempt criterion 10
Articulation of Response Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, or sophisticated manner Clearly conveys meaning with correct grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, demonstrating an understanding of audience and purpose Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors in grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, negatively impacting readability Submission has critical errors in grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, preventing understanding of ideas 5
Citations and Attributions Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with few or no minor errors Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with consistent minor errors Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with major errors Does not use citations for ideas requiring attribution

Coursework Sample Content Preview:

Matters of Law and Matters of Ethics in Business Situations
A contract arises from a mutual agreement between contractual parties. Miceli (2017) discusses the four basic elements of a valid contract. He argues that there must be a valid offer and acceptance, an adequate consideration, legality, and capacity for a contract to be legally enforceable. Mutuality in a contract is arrived at when one party, the promisor, has made an offer to deliver a service or provide a good to the other party, the promisee. Acceptance means the latter has accepted the offer presented by the promisor in exchange for a reward or payment, referred to as a consideration. Capacity is an individual’s ability to satisfy all the necessary elements required to enter into a contract. Examples of capacity in contract law include sound mind and minimum age. The element of legality argues that the purpose of the contract should be within the legal framework.
Contract Law Between the Friendly Dawg and Landlord Lou
In this scenario, Landlord Lou had made an offer to lease his property to the Friendly Dawg. The offer was accepted by Dave Dawg’s father before he passed away. The written lease agreement allowed the Friendly Dawg to sell pet supplies and food only and not rear pets and animals. The consideration was for the Friendly Dawg to pay rent for the leased space to Landlord Lou. There exists a contractual capacity as it is assumed that Dave Dawg was of legal age to assume the responsibilities of the contract between his father and Landlord Lou. Legality exists since selling pet supplies does not contradict any public policy.
Friendly Dawg can expand the pet business to include the sale of living animals and pets because nothing is stated in the lease agreement regarding this expansion. Additionally, Dawg has been paying rent on time, and it is more compared to the rent of the other tenant, Sunshine Yoga. On the other hand, Landlord Lou can claim that there exists no contract between him and Dave because the latter failed to revise the contract upon his father’s death to include the sale of live animals. Additionally, the expansion of the business to include animals was arrived at without the landlord’s consent. Therefore, Dave is said to have breached the lease agreement. However, this claim can be disregarded on the merit that he continued to pay rent to Lou even after his father’s demise, indicating that the contract is still valid.
Dawg is entitled to a safe, clean, and comfortable environment. Therefore, landlord Lou must improve the store’s air-conditioning system to calm the animals and promote their comfort. This obligation is referred to as the warranty of habitability, which is a landlord’s guarantee that the space or premise leased will remain habitable throughout the tenancy. Dawg can claim that the noise from his animals is due to the poor ventilation in the storage room. Contrary to Dave’s claim, Lou can argue that the storage room was only meant to store pet supplies and food that do not require an improved air-conditioning system.
Every tenant must pay the rent (total amount and by the agreed time) stipulated in the lease agreement. The contract between Landlord Lou and Friendly Dawg states ...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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Matters of Law and Matters of Ethics in Business Situations

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