Scenario 1 Lee Leighton parked his car in a parking lot and was asked by the parking lot owner (who was manning the booth) to leave the keys in his vehicle so that it could be moved as necessary. Leighton did so. The parking lot was not secured, and the car was not locked. Within the hour, Leighton's car was stolen by a thief who simply drove off with it. There was no need to hotwire or otherwise bypass the ignition switch in the vehicle, for example, as the keys were still in the ignition. One week later, the thief was in an accident with John Folkes while driving the stolen car. The thief had consumed alcohol and smoked marijuana on the night of the accident. Worse, the thief did not have a driver's licence nor, in fact, had he ever driven a car before the theft. Mr. Folkes unfortunately sustained serious, life-altering injuries from the accident. He has sued the parking lot owner and Mr. Leighton for negligence and seeks significant damages from each of them for his injuries. What will be the outcome of his negligence lawsuits? Scenario 2 Leona was interested in purchasing property that she intended to use for her family's expanding brickyard business. She spoke with the owner, who had recently inherited the property from his elderly aunt. Leona asked if there were any restrictions on the land preventing it from being used as a brickyard. The owner replied, "Not that I am aware of." Though this was literally true, the owner failed to explain that he had never checked whether the land was subject to any restrictions. Leona purchased the land and has found out that it cannot be used as a brickyard. Can she have the contract rescinded based on misrepresentation? Why or why not? What argument(s) might each side advance in court? Scenario 3 Nathalie goes to her hair salon, buys hair extensions, and pays to have them applied at the salon for the combined price of $50. When Nathalie arrives home, after driving in her white Cadillac with all-white leather upholstery, she notices that some of the colour from the hair extensions has run off and stained her white driver seat. On top of that, her extensions are now a much lighter colour than the rest of her hair. Nathalie immediately takes her car in, and it costs $1,000 to remove the dye from her seat. While she is waiting, she goes to a different salon next door, and she has the hair extensions removed and replaced for $200. What claims may Nathalie have against the salon, and what would she be successful in obtaining as a remedy? Would any of your answer(s) be different if Nathalie had instead waited five months before taking her vehicle in for repairs, and the dealership told her the dye had irreversibly set and could not now be cleaned, but that the entire upholstery would have to be ripped out and replaced. And that it would now cost her $10,000 for the upholstery replacement to get identical all-white leather upholstery. She tries five different shops and is told the same thing, each remarking it would only have cost her $1,000 to fix had she brought it in for cleaning much sooner. Scenario 4 Following the bankruptcy of Val-Nam Generation Limited, the trustees scheduled a first meeting of creditors, in which the creditors had the opportunity to question the bankrupt and the trustee in bankruptcy about the events leading to bankruptcy, the assets, and the administration of the bankrupt's estate. The creditors learned the following: a. Just before bankruptcy, Valery Garza, Val-Nam's CEO, shareholder and president, transferred two company vehicles into her own name after paying $3,000 to the company for the vehicles. Was this permissible? b. Valery personally guaranteed a number of loans for Val-Nam. Before making the loan guarantees, Valery transferred her interest in the family home, her car, and a vacation property to her spouse. After the loans were guaranteed, and when the business was in trouble, she also transferred a share portfolio to her spouse. Are any of these transfers permissible? c. Valery's Aunt Emma had given a loan to the company. When the business was in trouble, Valery paid the loan back while not making payments to other creditors. Was this permissible? Scenario 5 Hannah Chen was an accomplished skier. She turned to instructing when she graduated from university in Montreal and had worked at a number of ski hills in the Laurentians since then. Recently, she had run into a bit of a problem while providing lessons for a ski hill operator. Chen was concerned because the operator had not paid her for her services for six weeks. The operator believed that Chen should not be paid because some of the hill's clients had complained about Chen's attitude when providing lessons. Both Chen and the operator were anxious to have the problem resolved. However, both knew that the cost of litigation could be prohibitive, particularly given the relatively small amount in dispute. a) Mediation is a popular alternative to litigation. Might it be suitable here? b) Would arbitration be a suitable approach for resolving this dispute?