Case Questions

1.) While in her second year at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, Ann Rylands had a chance to borrow for one month a rare Guadagnini violin, made in 1768. She returned the violin to the owner in Philadelphia, but then she telephoned her father to ask if he would buy it for her. He borrowed money from his pension fund and paid the owner. Ann traveled to Philadelphia to pick up the violin. She had exclusive possession of the violin for the next 20 years, using it in her professional career. Unfortunately, she became an alcoholic, and during one period when she was in a treatment center, she entrusted the violin to her mother for safekeeping. At about that time, her father died. When Ann was released from the center, she requested the return of the violin, but her mother refused. Who owns the violin?

2.) Eileen Murphy often cared for her elderly neighbor, Thomas Kenney. He paid her $25 per day for her help and once gave her a bank certificate of deposit worth $25,000. She spent the money. Murphy alleged that shortly before his death, Kenney gave her a large block of shares in three corporations. He called his broker, intending to instruct him to transfer the shares to Murphy's name, but the broker was ill and unavailable. So Kenney told Murphy to write her name on the shares and keep them, which she did. Two weeks later, Kenney died. When Murphy presented the shares to Kenney's broker to transfer ownership to her, the broker refused because Kenney had never endorsed the shares as the law requiresthat is, signed them over to Murphy. Was Murphy entitled to the $25,000? To the shares?

3.)Artist James Daugherty painted six murals on the walls of the public high school in Stamford, Connecticut. Many years later, the city began to restore its high school. The architect and school officials agreed that the Daugherty murals should be preserved. They arranged for the construction workers to remove the murals to prevent harm. By accident, the workers rolled them up and placed them near the trash dumpsters for disposal. A student found the murals and took them home, and he later notified the federal government's General Services Administration (GSA) of his find. The GSA arranged to transport the murals to an art restorer named Hiram Hoelzer for storage and eventual restoration when funds could be arranged. Over 19 years went by before anyone notified the Stamford School system where the murals were. In the meantime, neither the GSA nor anyone else paid Hoelzer for the storage or restoration. By 1989, the murals were valued at $1.25 million by Sotheby's, an art auction house. Hoelzer filed suit, seeking a declaration that the murals had been abandoned. Were they abandoned? What difference would that make when determining ownership?

4.) The Louisiana Civil Code limits an innkeeper's liability for stolen property to $500 and only covers cash, jewelry, rare art items, furs, cameras, and negotiable instruments. While staying at the New Orleans Hilton, Allen Chase was drugged by a woman he met at the hotel bar. He woke up the next morning to find that his gold watch, wallet, credit cards, passport, business papers, and camera were gone. As a result of the drug, Chase suffered health problems, which seriously affected his business. Believing that the hotel bartender had helped the woman who drugged him, Chase sued Hilton for negligence in the amount of $575,000. Who wins and why?