Scenario 1:

Analyze all liability and damages.

Mary worried that the kitchen in the restaurant she owned might have a rat problem. She considered hiring an exterminator and/or setting traps in the kitchen, but she did not want her employees to know about her suspicion. Mary concluded that the best thing to do was buy rat poison in powder form, store it in an unmarked jar, and wait for further evidence of rat infestation before deciding whether to use it. Jocasta intended to store the jar in a hall closet but distractedly placed it on a cabinet shelf in the kitchen. The rat poison looked like coarse kosher-style salt, a common ingredient in restaurant cooking.

A week later when Sven, a health inspector, was visiting the kitchen, the unexpectedly stored jar of rat poison fell and landed on the expensive thermometer Sven had placed on the counter, damaging it. Sven brought a negligence action against Jocasta.

Scenario 2:

Analyze all liability and damages

While suffering from addiction to Opie, a drug, Erica sought treatment from Ariana, a psychiatrist. In one of their therapy sessions, Ariana's phone alerted her to a text message from her interior decorator. Ariana excused herself from the room, saying she would be back in a minute.

Erica felt she had a unique opportunity and dived into Ariana's desk drawer where she found a small unlabeled plastic bottle of pills. Not knowing what they were, Erica took the bottle and ingested most of the pills when she got home. The pills turned out to be sedatives whose overdose caused Erica injury. Erica brought an action against Ariana, alleging that she had been negligent for leaving her in the room with the drugs.