Question
find Massachusetts case law for this scenario; Today I met with a new potential client, Rose Daniels (Ms. Daniels), who is seeking to recover damages
find Massachusetts case law for this scenario;
Today I met with a new potential client, Rose Daniels (Ms. Daniels), who is seeking to recover damages she suffered after an encounter with a drone. Ms. Daniels was running through the Public Garden in Boston, in April of last year (2023), when the accident occurred. Ms. Daniels is an avid runner and was training to run the Boston Marathon on April 17th. The accident occurred on Sunday the 9th. She recalls that it was a clear day and "beautiful" out. She remembers because she took special note of the tulips blooming in the public garden. That was about her last thought before waking up in a hospital.
Again, on the morning of the 9th, around 9:00 AM, Ms. Daniels was running through the public garden. Ms. Daniels was listening to music on her iPhone, while running, so she never heard the drone. In fact, she really doesn't know if she would have heard the drone without her headphones as she has never really seen one up close. All she remembers is that she was running and, at one point, felt a sharp pain in her head. She then "blacked out" and woke up later that day in the hospital. Her doctors told her she suffered a traumatic brain injury. Even after all this time, Ms. Daniels has trouble running as she still has some limited functioning of her arms and legs. She sporadically suffers from abnormal speech as she frequently loses the ability to think. As she describes it, she often loses her train of thought. Initially, she had blurred vision and sensitivity to noise and light. But those symptoms abated after a few months. She was not able to run the marathon, which she trained for since that January. Her doctors can't say for sure whether she will ever recover to the physical and mental condition she was in before the accident. They do say that, with continued physical therapy, she will likely gain greater mobility in her arms and legs. Her memory and processing problems could very well be long term.
A drone is a remotely controlled un-manned aircraft. (Information about drone injuries is attached). The particular drone that struck her weighed 3.3 lbs. and had a GoPro video camera attached to it. It was owned by Walter Desmond ("Walter"). Walter is a 22-year-old MIT student. He was flying the drone in the park when a pigeon slammed into it and it fell from the sky. Walter designed the drone himself as part of a project he was working on at MIT. When the drone hit Ms. Daniels, a witness went right over to her to see if she was O.K. That witness is Mary Smithfield ("Mary"). Mary is a nurse practitioner at Mass General Hospital who happened to be taking a walk through the Public Garden that morning. She said she heard the sound of the drone flying overhead. She looked up at the exact moment the pigeon hit the drone causing it to fall from the sky. She witnessed the drone hit Ms. Daniels and immediately rushed to her to see if she was O.K. Mary called 911 because Ms. Daniels was unresponsive. The police and then an ambulance arrived on the scene. Walter rushed immediately to the scene as well and was quite shaken that the drone had fallen and hurt someone.
Mary said that she walks through the Boston Common and Public Garden all the time. She has seen a drone once or twice but not that often. In her opinion, it is not a good place to be flying things. She said "Those drones really make me uncomfortable. Not only do I feel like they are watching me but there are so many trees all around that I worried one would hit a tree and fall. And, everyone knows that there are pigeons everywhere in the parks and they are not afraid of anything." Walter said he has test flown his drone in public many times. Sometimes on the MIT campus and other times in the Boston Common or the Public Garden. He says he has never had a problem before.
ASSIGNMENT
Research the above problem and draft an interoffice memo predicting whether Rose Daniels will recover in a lawsuit against Walter Desmond for negligence. This is a Massachusetts case, and any suit would be filed in a Massachusetts court.
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