Couch Potato, Inc. manufactures sofas and chairs using a proprietary product made from potatoes that over time molds to the shape of the person sitting on the furniture. The company's commercials include a statement by an orthopedic surgeon from Boise, Idaho, who swears it is "the most comfortable seating you'll ever own." Based on that endorsement, the company calls its products "doctor-approved" in its magazine ads and touts the importance of back relaxation on overall health. The company also holds itself out as a "model employer" and "family friendly" based on its paid parenthood leave program, on-site day care, free parenting classes and subsidized health insurance premiums. Sandra Martinez is hired as shift supervisor at Couch Potato, Inc.'s plant in Pearland, Texas. Martinez performs her job well, and after six months the President of the company, Ben Climber, offers her a promotion to Assistant Plant Manager in the company's Laredo, Texas plant. The job includes a significant pay increase and greater potential bonus. Climber thinks the position will be a good fit for her because she is a Mexican American, speaks Spanish and "can relate to the workers there." Like Martinez, more than half of the workers at the plant are originally from Mexico. During a meeting with Climber, Martinez talks to Climber and expresses concerns about relocating with her husband and small children, and Climber verbally promises her she will serve as Assistant Plant Manager in Laredo for at least two years and will be brought back to work in Pearland at the end of her assignment in Laredo. Martinez accepts the offer during their meeting. She subsequently moves to Laredo and begins serving as Assistant Plant Manager. Couch Potato is the only company in the world making furniture using potato by-products, and it wants to keep it that way. Climber figures that if he can just keep his formula a secret and keep production costs low for a few more years, potential competitors will stay away. Climber approaches Couch Potato's largest supplier, Spuds, Inc. and negotiates a deal whereby Spuds will supply all of the potatoes Couch Potato needs. Not wanting to lose the Couch Potato account, which is substantial, Spuds agrees to sell potatoes to Couch Potato at a substantial discount off of the price it charges its other customers. They execute a written, three-year contract for the sale and purchase of potatoes. The fixed price per pound of potatoes is so low that fluctuations in the potato market cause Spuds to lose money on the deal in some months during the term of the agreement. Six months after Martinez moves to Laredo, she reports to Human Resources that she thinks many of the workers in the Laredo plant are illegal aliens and that the company is illegally discriminating against American citizens by favoring Mexican workers. Climber subsequently decides Martinez is "not the right fit for the job" and transfers her back to the Pearland facility, where she is assigned her old shift supervisor position and experiences a substantial cut in pay and benefits. Joe Customer buys one of Couch Potato's sofas for his new bachelor pad. He likes the fact that the company is family-friendly, and the ads were right - it is the most comfortable sofa he has ever owned. It is so comfortable that he spends eight to ten hours per day reclined on the sofa watching The Big Lebowski and repeats of American Pickers on the History Channel. Six months after purchasing his Couch Potato sofa, Customer gets his annual physical and learns he has significant spinal degeneration, which his doctor believes is recent, likely to be debilitating in the long-term, and may be the result of spending too much time on his Couch Potato sofa. The doctor informs Customer that he will likely need surgery in the future.

What

1). legal standards,

2). legal claims,

3). legal defenses, and

4). potential liabilities

are implicated by the facts set forth above?