Final Exam 1. John owned a cat which wandered into his yard.
John was charged withviolating a local ordinance which read: “It shall be illegal to permits cows,horses, goats, or other animals to wander about in a yard that is not propertyfenced. ” The ordinance had been passed over fifty years ago when wanderinganimals destroyed neighbor’s crops. Is John guilty of violating this ordinance? Using two techniques of statutory interpretation, discuss. 2. Suppose that Perry sues Davis on the theory that Davis is so ugly Perrysuffers intense emotional distress in his presence.
Davis thinks correctly that there is no rule of law allowing Perry to recover. What procedural deviceshould Davis use in this circumstance? Describe. 3. The local city council adopted an ordinance restricting the local skatingrink to persons under 16 years of age. Plaintiffs challenged the ordinanceunder the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Under the holding inthe Stanglin case in your text, what results and why?4. Suppose that someone argues that, contrary to popular belief, corporatedecision-making is almost completely irrational. If by chance this assertionwere true, it would undermine two major arguments made by defenders of thecorporation. What are these arguments and how would the assertion underminethem? (One of your answers would probably trouble “corporate reformers” aswell. )5. Acting pursuant to a warrant obtained upon a sufficient showing of probablecause, Officer Beau Bogus arrested Earl Sleazeman for the crime of murder.
Officer Bogus neglected to give Sleazeman the Miranda warnings at the time ofthe arrest or at any time thereafter. During “booking” at the police station,Officer Bogus required an unwilling Sleazeman to submit to fingerprinting. (Information obtained through the fingerprinting process ultimately proveduseful, because the police discovered Sleazeman’s fingerprints on the door knowto the front door of the house where the dead body of the murder victim hadbeen found). After booking was completed, Officer Bogus and Detective HarrietDirty interrogated Sleazeman — still without the Miranda warnings ever havingbeen given — at the police station.
During the course of the interrogation,Sleazeman confessed to the murder for which he had been arrested. Sleazemanlater retained attorney Nola Contendere to represent him in the murder case. She has filed, on Sleazeman’s behalf, a motion to suppress (i. e. , motionrequesting a court order excluding certain evidence) in which she argues thatthe fingerprinting of Sleazeman and the interrogation of him violated his FifthAmendment rights and his Miranda rights.
Sleazeman’s attorney argues,therefore, that the exclusionary rule should be applied, as to prevent thestate from using the following evidence against Sleazeman: (a) any evidencederived from the fingerprinting that took place during booking; and (b)Sleazeman’s confession. Is Sleazeman’s attorney correct in her arguments thatSleazeman’s Fifth Amendment rights and Miranda rights were violated? Why or whynot? As to the evidence listed above as (a) and (b), mentioned in Sleazeman’sattorney’s motion to suppress, state whether the exclusionary rule wouldprevent the prosecution from using that evidence against Sleazeman? Explainyour reasoning. 6. Jed’s roommates played a trick on him by abducting him from his room andtying him up in his underwear on his girlfriend’s porch. Jed, who wasintoxicated, slept through the whole incident and didn’t wake up until the nextmorning, after his girlfriend had untied him and dressed him. Under what legaltheories, if any, is Jed entitled to recover damages from his “friends” underthese facts? 7.
What are four factors courts consider in determining whether an activity is”abnormally dangerous” for purpose of strict liability?8. In 1955, Merton, an English professor, wrote a book of poetry which hecopyrighted. 340 copies were sold nationwide. In 1975, the Pink Punk, a rockband, recorded a song with lyrics exactly like the words of one of Merton’spoems. The poem occupied one page in a 112 page book. If Merton sues Pink Punkfor copyright infringements, and Pink Punk employs a fair use defense, whichtwo factors are most likely to help the group? 9.
It has been said that one of the major factors which influenced theevolution of modern contract law was the fact that, in the later decades of thenineteenth century, an increasingly large number of transactions no longerresembled the stereotypical transaction envisioned by classical contract law. Explain this statement, contrasting classical contract law’s assumptions withlatter day reality. 10. Over a period of several months, ABC Manufacturing Company and XYZ PlumbingSupply have been negotiating over the sale of copper tubing.
They have reachedan .
