Business law exam

EVERYTHING IS GOOD. UNTIL IT AIN'T 50 POINTS Adam Anderson and Eve Ellington, passengers in a car driven by Driver Desmond, were injured in a one-car automobile accident. Driver was also injured. The accident occurred on a rainy aftemoon in November 2017 on Shreve Road in Fairfax County. Shreve Road is a two-lane highway handling trafc in both directions, with a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour. The two lanes are separated by double yellow lines. The road curves to the right where the accident occurred. Driver was driving his 1985 Buick Grand NationaIIGNX, which he had recently purchased. Driver entered Shreve Road approximately one-half mile from the accident scene and proceeded along at a speed of 30 to 35 miles per hour. Conversation among the group, each of whom was home from college for Thanksgiving, tumed to football, horsepower, and how quickly cars could reach a speed of 100 mph. Adam asked Driver \"how fast\" the car could go and then said he \"had always gone 80 miles an hour down Shreve Road. Let's see how quickly you can reach 80 mph.\" Driver "felt pressured" by Adam's remark, so he pushed the accelerator \"to the floor.\" He increased his speed to 80 miles per hour although he knew there was a curve ahead. As the vehicle approached the curve, Eve yelled at Driver to \"slow down\" because of the \"dangerous curve" in the road. Driver removed his foot from the accelerator, but the accelerator stuck. He reached down with his right hand to free the accelerator, meanwhile steering with his left hand and intermittently looking up at the road and down at the accelerator. Driver was unable to free the accelerator. When the vehicle reached the curve, it went out of control, \"side-skidded\" into a ditch on the left side of the road, crossed a driveway, struck a tree, and skidded onto the property of Hilda Homeowner, who had just bought a house on Shreve Road. The car struck a gas line on the property and ruptured it. An explosion followed. The gas line would not have ruptured but for Corny Calloway's mistake in installing the gas line. Corny, who had been employed by Gasline for only a few months when the explosion ocwrred, had been severely intoxicated the evening before and was \"hungover.\" The force of the resulting explosion shattered the windows of the house next door owned by Neighbor. Neighbor's daughter, Nancy, who was practicing yoga on the front porch, was injured by shattered glass. Subsequent investigation revealed that a broken spring caused the accelerator to stick. Driver had purchased the 1985 Buick Grand NationallGNX from Classic Used Cars (Classic), a local used car dealer. Standard equipment on the car included top-of-the-line parts and springs from High Quality Parts, Inc. However, the original purchaser of the Buick was able to save $1,000 on the purchase price by allowing the Buick dealer to substitute lower priced parts and springs from Low Quality, Inc. The original owner had informed Classic of this fact and Classic notied Driver in writing when he purchased the car. Unbeknownst to Driver or Classic, the Spring had been defectively designed by Low Quality, Inc., with the result that it could malfunction when the car accelerated quickly. Classic had performed a thorough inspection of the vehicle before it sold it to Driver but the inspection did not identify the problem. The accident occurred in a contributory negligence jurisdiction. A. Adam sues Driver. Discuss fully the legal validity of each of the following arguments that Driver has used to avoid liability: 1. The stuck accelerator was the cause of the accident, not Driver's speeding. 2. Driver acted reasonably under the circumstances. A sudden emergency developed and Driver did all that he could do to avoid the accident. Therefore, he is not negligent. 3. Adam. because of his own behavior, cannot recover. B. Eve sues Classic Used Cars. [3 m