Late one-night last January, the owner of a funeral home, Tony, and one of his employees, Phil, were driving a hearse from Omaha to Amarillo to bring a corpse to its final resting place. Phil was driving the first leg of the journey and, at about 11:45 p.m., he realized that Tony had fallen asleep in the passenger seat and that he was sleepy too, so he pulled off the interstate and went into a Starbucks to get an espresso for Tony and a warm milk for himself. When Phil came out, it was snowing, and standing next to the hearse was a guy wearing a thin jacket, shivering in the cold. The stranger asked Phil where he was headed and then if he could ride with him to Amarillo. Phil felt sorry for him and didn't think Tony would mind, so he said okay, but told him that he'd have to ride in the back with the coffin. The hitchhiker said that was fine with him, so he climbed in the back and almost immediately fell asleep. Feeling that it was Tony's turn to drive for a while, Phil woke him up, gave him the espresso, climbed into the passenger seat, and promptly fell asleep himself.

-> About 3 a.m., the hitchhiker woke up. Wondering where they were and what time it was, he reached through the curtain separating the coffin compartment from the front seat and tapped Tony on the shoulder, saying "How much longer?" Tony screamed and, in a fit of panic and incomprehension, jerked the steering wheel to the right as he swiveled to see the source of the voice behind him. This caused the hearse to swerve off the interstate and end up in a snowbank. Phil and Tony were wearing their seatbelts and were uninjured, but the passenger in the back was badly bruised and hurt his neck and the coffin was scuffed and marred. Both the hitchhiker and the deceased's estate want to sue.

Using the IRAC method (Issue, Rules, Analysis, Conclusion), identify and analyze the tort and agency issues presented by this scenario and their likely resolution. That is, who should the hitchhiker and estate sue for what? Also discus likely resolutions.