Read the following scenarios and answer the questions.

1) You and two friends own a small limousine service. You have incorporated and exist as a close corporation, with the three of you as the shareholders and directors. You have structured the business so that each of you also is an officer with a salary. Any income to the corporation that is not paid out in salary or used for operations is reinvested in the corporation to expand the business. You serve as President of the corporation and handle all of the hiring. Your friend, Anna, serves as Vice President of Marketing and Finance. The second friend, Elijah, serves as Vice President of Acquisitions. His job is to increase the number of cars you own and to manage the maintenance of the fleet. You come in to work one day and see a number of fairly new, but fairly beaten up, cars in the parking lot. You ask Elijah about them and he tells you that he bought them for the company. He explains that his friend, Mitchell, runs a business about 200 miles from your town. Mitchell called Elijah last night and offered him the cars at an unbelievably low price. Elijah agreed to buy them on the spot and faxed the signed contract to Mitchell. The cars arrived this morning. They are completely unusable for your business. Evaluate whether you can make Elijah reimburse the company for the cost of the cars.

2) You work for RBEY, Inc., a corporation that manufactures wooden furniture. You are a procurement officer, responsible for purchasing raw materials that will be converted in to the furniture. As the main point of contact for suppliers, you have built a relationship with many of them. You routinely negotiate purchase contracts back and forth by e-mail. Your e-mail signature includes your title and the company name under your name. When it is time to finalize a contract, RBEY is the name of the party to the contract, and you sign your name on a line above your typed name, title and company name. A friend of yours, who has a little knowledge of contract law, asks how you can possibly sign your name to the contract without including the term "as agent for RBEY." Explain how you can avoid personal liability on the contracts.

3) You are the vice president of a computer sales company. You could save significant money by firing one of two employees who service the northwest region: Gary and Brenda. Gary is a long-time employee with an excellent sales record and a forceful demeanor. However, you and Gary have conflicted in the past when you rejected his request for a significant raise. Brenda has been struggling with her sales quotas lately, but is very popular amongst her co-workers. She has also been a quiet confidant for key sales decisions. Evaluate whether you should layoff Brenda, Gary, or neither employee, and give the reasons for your decision.

4) You are the president of a HumTech, a technology consulting company, and have received some startling news. Richard is one of your information technology supervisors. You learn that Richard has been emailing Brenda, an information technology technician who reports to him, pornographic photos and sexually-directed jokes. Brenda told Richard to stop, but Richard continued to send the emails to Brenda. In response to Richard's conduct, Brenda abruptly quit and filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Preventing sexual harassment has been a major priority for you, and you have established extensive complaint procedures, dispute resolution mechanisms, and sexual harassment prevention policies. You are surprised that Brenda didn't use these resources before seeking legal redress. Evaluate whether your company may be held liable for Richard's conduct.

5) You are the CEO of a company who has been tasked with reaching a collective bargaining agreement with union representatives. Numerous terms and conditions of employment will be negotiated, such as workplace safety, wages, working hours, health benefits, and pensions. You are aware of the duty that, once you begin negotiations with the union, you must negotiate in good faith and make a reasonable effort to come to an agreement. Explain your legal duties and the business implications of your good faith bargaining obligations in the negotiation process.

6) You are an administrator working for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, a state administrative agency. You are tasked with implementing a new and controversial pollution control rule. The media will be watching closely to ensure all required procedures are followed. Local citizens are requesting that the rule be implemented immediately and without a hearing because, they argue, the need for controls are so acute. A California environmental group is requesting that you consider the impacts of the rule on their state. A manufacturing lobbyist has asked you to decrease relevant pollution standards in the rule by 90%, even though you have significant evidence that current pollution levels are dangerously high. Assuming that Maine administrative law, including the Administrative Procedure Act, is substantially the same as federal law discussed in this chapter, evaluate your responses to these requests in light of rules you need to follow. You want to avoid having your rule held unlawful and set aside by a court.

7) You recently were hired as a front line debt collection agent for a debt collection service in Michigan. Your boss assigns you to a fairly new client. That client shares with you several items: account ledgers showing overdue balances, checks that "bounced" or were returned for insufficient funds, and a list of dates of purchases. Most of the purchases were made more than 6 years ago. Michigan has a six year statute of limitations for the collection of debt, meaning that after six years, one cannot successfully bring a lawsuit to recover old debt. You talk to your boss who instructs you to go ahead and contact the debtors with the standard letter that offers to settle the outstanding debt for 75% of the amount owed. The letter also indicated that failure to either accept the settlement offer within 20 days, or pay off the full amount after day 20 but before day 45, would result in the filing of a lawsuit to collect the debt. As a new collection agent, you know that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act governs behavior in the industry. Explain why this requested behavior may violate the act.

8) Richard Willey purchased a lot on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. The lot had an old building on it that Mr. Willey wanted to construct a new building for expensive retail locations. Mr. Willey hired a contractor who arranged for the demolition of the old building. As the construction of the new building began, and the construction company was excavating the lot to place footings and lay a foundation for the new building, the company found an old underground gas tank. It was dry and rusted through in several places. Quick research showed that a Conshell gas station, owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Watson, was on the property from 1948 to 1959. Underground gas tanks, and any potential leakage, qualify for cleanup under the Superfund. Discuss the liability of Mr. Willey in paying for the cost of the cleanup.

9) You have started a successful business and are now ready to buy some property as your storefront location. You find one piece of property on a prime corner lot downtown. The owner of that property is willing to sell it to you with a quitclaim deed. The property has been in his family for multiple generations and he is not sure if any cousins have a legitimate claim to the property. You find another piece of property of similar size that is in a slightly less ideal location, but the owner is willing to sell it to you with a warranty deed. Based on your knowledge of the types of deeds, briefly discuss the risks involved in buying each property, which one might cost you more, and who has the burden of cost if a claim comes against the title of the property after the purchase.