Question
Raquel owned and operated a dry-cleaning business as a sole proprietorship that she opened up with capital gifted to her from her parents. There were
Raquel owned and operated a dry-cleaning business as a sole proprietorship that she opened up with capital gifted to her from her parents. There were a couple of other dry cleaners in her town, but none offered same-day service. So do differentiate and increase her sales, Raquel decided to offer not only same-day service, but also same-day delivery service to local customers.
After researching the cost to hire an employee, Raquel decided
to instead use a driver as an independent contractor to make her dry-cleaning
deliveries on an "as needed" basis. Raquel did not personally know anyone who
could do this work, so she searched the freelancers' website "Fiverr" and found
several drivers who make deliveries on a per-job-basis.
The driver profiles on Fiverr included their hourly and per-job
rates, and also customer reviews. One particular driver on the list, named
Alex, caught Raquel's eye. Alex's rates were the lowest among all other
drivers, and about 80% percent of his customer reviews were a perfect 5 on a
scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high). However, the other 20% rated him 2 or 1, citing
incidents of bad driving, rude behavior, and treating customers' property
roughly. Furthermore, the website also reports that Alex was sued two times for
negligent driving.
Nevertheless, Raquel hired Alex because of his economical rate
and because he had his own delivery truck. When she hired Alex, Raquel told him
that when making deliveries for the dry-cleaning operation, he is to place
self-sticking magnetic signs advertising the dry cleaners on both sides of his
delivery truck. Alex agreed, but because the pair of signs cost about
$200-$300, he told Raquel that she would have to purchase them for him. Raquel
responded that she was too busy, and that she would pay him for his extra time
to purchase them but told him not to spend more than $300 for the pair.
Raquel then gave Alex one of her business cards - which had the
store's name on it - for the purpose of identifying Alex as acting for the store.
On the back of the card, Raquel wrote, "This is my agent to purchase signs for
my store." Alex then went to a local sign maker's shop, showed them the
business card that Raquel gave him, and purchased a pair of custom-made signs
for $600 on credit. As custom-made signs, they were not permitted to return or
refund them. When the completed signs were delivered to Raquel , she became
furious. She refused possession of the signs and also refused to pay the sign
shop because the total cost exceeded her authorization by $300. Alex then made
two smaller signs with the dry-cleaners' name on them and, with Raquel 's
approval, put them on his truck when making deliveries.
For the next three months, business went very well - so well
that Raquel decided she needed help with the business. She asked her friend
Joanne, who had a lot of experience working as a dry-cleaner and a tailor, to
join her as a partner. Joanne agreed to do it, provided she would not have to
pay anything into the partnership and that she was paid $500 per week salary as
an advance to be drawn against her future profit distribution. They both agreed
to this, with the further understanding that Joanne would be a limited partner
and that they would split the profits equally. They wrote up a partnership
agreement accordingly.
Business continued to grow steadily, and it became necessary for
Joanne and Raquel to split duties -Joanne tending to the front-end operations
and be the tailor for the store, while Raquel managed the back-end finances and
marketing. They agreed to discuss the operations of the store regularly, but at
least weekly, to stay on top of all potential issues. Joanne even convinced
Raquel to expand into commercial dry-cleaning with delivery for local churches
and private schools, and this grew the business even more.
Particularly, this added delivery service to private schools was
a hit; so popular that Alex ended up working full-time on just doing the
dry-cleaning deliveries. Although he still thought of himself as a freelancer,
Alex''s work was exclusively for the dry-cleaner by this time.
One day, Joanne called a customer and told him, "My driver is on
his way to make a delivery to you in a truck with the store's name on its
side." The customer kept watch at his window, and when he saw the truck with
the store's signs on it, he went out to the driveway through his garage. As he
started to walk toward the truck, Alex negligently hit the accelerator pedal,
causing the truck to hit the customer, who sustained substantial injuries.
This incident so thoroughly rattled Joanne that she wanted out
of the partnership.
Assume that there was an enforceable contract to buy the signs
from the sign shop, and that the driver's negligence proximately caused the
customer's injuries.
Question:
1.Who is (or is not) liable to the sign shop for the purchase price of the signs? Explain.
2.Who is (or is not) liable to the customer for the injuries resulting from the Alex's negligence? Explain.
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