Is anyone able to help me understand where to start in breaking down the following two hypotheticals into (1) elements, (2) subject matter (3) legal cause of action , (4) defenses to cause of actions and (5) relief sought? I am trying to deepen my understanding of the legal research process.

I need to cartwheel each of the five elements, listing at least three ways of describing each element in "descriptive terms" search on Westlaw.

1. Mrs. Farmer owns a small ranch. Her land, once in the middle of nowhere, is now adjacent to a newly built housing development and her neighbor's homes back up to her cow pasture. Although Mrs. Farmer feeds her cows well, the neighbors like to give the friendly critters "hand-outs." Mrs. Farmer has asked her neighbors to not feed the rather large cows, but several neighbors have persisted. On more than one occasion, Mrs. Farmer has found yard clippings dumped over her fence and into the cow pasture. She has dutifully raked up the clippings, bagged them, and returned them to the neighbors along with a note explaining that these clippings may be hazardous to the health of her prize cows. One morning, Mrs. Farmer marched into her pasture only to find her favorite cow, "Blossom," dead next to a pile of yard clippings containing oleander leaves. The necropsy performed on "Blossom" revealed that she died from cardiac arrest resulting from ingesting the poisonous oleander. Mrs. Farmer wants to sue the neighbors responsible for dumping the clippings into the pasture.

2. Mr. Businessman leases office space in a rather large office building. For years there has been a problem with the heating and air-conditioning systems as well as the plumbing. The building is old, and the owner is not willing to spend much money on repairs and updating the building. On several occasions, the sewage system has backed up casing the building to have to be evacuated because of the methane gas that collected in the air-conditioning system because the system does not bring in fresh air, but rather, re-cycles contained air. Mr. Businessman's office is on the top floor of the building where most of the gas accumulates and there is no way to open windows. When there is a collection of gas in the building, and the building must be evacuated, the elevators may not be used because of the risk of an explosion. Tromping down 20 flights of stairs is extremely hard on Mr. Businessman who is physically frail. Mr. Businessman moved into the building three months ago and has been evacuated from his office five times. Today, Mr. Businessman was in the middle of a big business deal with prospective investors when the firemen barged in and ordered them to evacuate the building. Needless to say, the investors fled, the deal fell through, and Mr. Businessman wants to break his 5-year lease.

L-349658.qxp (lclark.edu)

The Legal Research Methodology of Cartwheeling (brainmass.com)