a. Why did the father sue his wife's partnership?
b. What would happen if the partnership did not have liability insurance?
c. Why would the partnership be liable to Remington? Wasn't it his mother's fault he was injured, not the partnerships?
d. Why doesn't Moren have to indemnify the partnership? After all, she was the careless one.
e. Does this rule make sense? What policy considerations are behind it?
Jax is a pizza restaurant in Foley, Minnesota owned by two sisters-Nicole Moren and Amy Benedetti. They operated it as a partnership. One afternoon, Moren ended her regular shift at 4:00 p.m. and left to pick up her two-year-old son Remington from day care. When her sister called her to say that one of the cooks had not come to work, Moren returned to the restaurant with Remington. Moren's husband said he would pick the child up in about 20 minutes.
Because Moren did not want Remington running around the restaurant, she brought him into the kitchen with her, set him on top of the counter, and began rolling out pizza dough using the dough-pressing machine. As she was making pizzas, Remington reached his hand into the dough press. His hand was crushed, causing permanent injuries. His father brought suit on Remington's behalf against the partnership for negligence. The partnership, in its turn, sued Moren, arguing that she had to reimburse the partnership for any payments to Remington. The district court granted summary judgment to Moren. The restaurant appealed.