Tort Law Problems

1. Roughly a half-hour after Breakable Rental Furniture and Appliances, Inc. personnel delivered the chest of drawers she had rented, Goma File found a purse in one of the drawers. The purse contained $200 in cash. Is the purse (including its contents) lost, mislaid, or abandoned property? What would File's rights be under each of these classifications of property?

2. Cheatem agreed to be a surety for Hank on Hank's credit purchase of an automobile from Ford Motor Company. Hank failed to make the payments called for in the purchase agreement. It was later determined that Hank was insane, and therefore lacking in capacity to enter into a contract, at the time he purchased the automobile. Ford then made demand upon Cheatem for payment of the debt, but Cheatem refused, claiming that as Hank's surety, she had the right to raise Hank's insanity as a defense. Is Cheatem correct? Explain your answer.

3. Lewey and Dewey are freshmen at the University of Phoenix. They were both looking for a place to live and found the rents in the area too high. They decided to buy a 10-unit apartment building near the campus. The financing arrangement required a down payment of $40,000.00 of which each paid half. Lewey had inherited money and used his inheritance to pay his half. Dewey borrowed $20,000.00 from his father with a written agreement that it would be paid back when the apartment building was sold. Lewey and Dewey did not have a written agreement between themselves but paid expenses equally and split the rents equally. One day when rushing to the building to fix a broken pipe, Dewey hit a pedestrian with his car. Does either Dewey's father or Lewey have any personal liability for the pedestrian's injuries? Why or why not?

4. The rule enabling a holder in due course to overcome so-called personal defenses has been modified by the FTC and by the states in consumer cases. Prior to this modification, what defense could a holder in due course overcome? What is the justification for this modification? Give an example of the sort of alleged abuse that provoked these modifications.

5. Ted Thief steals one of Dave Drawer's checks, forges Dave's signature to a check for $1000 in cash, and negotiates the check for $990 to Hal Holder. Hal is acting in good faith and has no reason to suspect a forgery. After Hal presents the check to Dave's bank, the bank pays $1000 to Hal and charges Dave's account for that amount. Then, after Dave screams bloody murder when he gets his checking account statement, the bank recredits his account for $1000. On what theory might the bank try to recover the $1000 from Hal? What are its chances of success? If it fails, what else might it do?

6. Insolvent Airlines states that it will not hire men to serve food and drinks on Insolvent's flights within the United States. Larry Livid, who was denied such employment at Insolvent because of this policy, has brought a Title VII suit against Insolvent. Does Title VII forbid sex discrimination against men? In any event, Larry will not have to worry about Title VII's disparate treatment and disparate impact methods of proof. Why is this? Finally, what defense should insolvent try to use here? Will it work?

Please include reasoning or issues and rules involved.