MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT

MAXIMUM 500 WORKS

FACTS

Ali is working as a divisional manager for DC Manufacturing when he is approached by an executive from Avengers Manufacturing and offered a job. Avengers Manufacturing is keen to hire Ali because he has decades of relevant experience. Ali accepts the job with Avengers, gives notice to DC Manufacturing and commences employment with Avengers Manufacturing in January.

After working with Avengers Manufacturing for nine weeks, Ali is out of the office on a sales call visit when he receives an email on his company cell phone from the President of Avengers Manufacturing, Donald Rump. In the email, Rump asks Ali to purchase ten iTunes cards each worth $300 for a customer email promotional blitz. Rump tells Ali to immediately email him with the activation codes. Ali thinks the request is odd, but as he is new to the organization he is keen to be diligent and helpful. She quickly responds by email to Mr. Rump that he will do as he asks as soon as possible. Alie copies his immediate superior, Mr. Tence, on the email. While he is in between appointments, Ali manages to run into a store to buy the cards.

After buying the cards, Ali replies to the email and sends the activation codes to Mr. Rump. Mr. Tence is also copied to the email.

The author of the email is quick to respond and asks for the names and emails of the customers that Ali has visited that day. Ali sends him the information.

The next day, Ali receives an email from Rump addressed to the whole company. The email says that early the previous week the company became aware of attempts to use a phishing scheme to scam employees using President Rump's name and an email address that was similar to companyemail, but was in fact fraudulent. Rump's email warned the employees to be aware of this risk.

Ali sits down at a desktop computer. He opens up his email and looks at the original email he received from Rump. Using the larger screen, he notices that what he had thought was an email from Rump was not actually sent from an official Avengers company email address; the email address contained additional characters suggesting that it was a phishing scam. He realized that the author of the email was posing as Avengers company president and that it was actually fraudulent.

Ali tells Rump what happened, and explains that he has charged $3500 in iTunes cards to his personal credit card and that he also responded to the scammer with names and emails of customers. Ali is immediately fired for disclosing private customer information. Rump sends an email to the whole company advising that Ali was fired for incompetence.

ANALYSIS

1. What are the specific legal issues that you identify? (A legal issue is a question of law raised based upon the facts of a case.) 10 marks
2. Explain or evaluate the arguments of each side and cite relevant cases. 20 marks
   1. Does Ali have a right to sue his employer? Why or why not?
   2. Does Avengers Manufacturing have a claim against Ali? What other exposure might Avengers Manufacturing have as a result of the events?
3. What specific risk management lessons can business professionals learn from this fact situation? (Apply legal principles!) 10 marks