Ben London owns and operates Fantastic Footage, a filmediting company in Los Angeles that does contract work mostly for production companies in Hollywood. Not long ago, a local landscaping business completed nearly $5,500 worth of work around London’s offices. While the initial bid now seems a little high for the amount of work that was actually done, there is no question that the work completed was of high quality, and London finally feels comfortable inviting potential clients to meet him at his office to discuss possible deals. However, because of an apparent oversight, the landscaping contractor never submitted a bill. It’s been more than 15 months since the completion of the project, and London has come to conclude that the contractor somehow lost track of the project. He is thinking about calling the company to ask for a final invoice so that he can settle up, but business has been really slow over the last year or so, and it hasn’t been easy to pay all of the bills as it is. Forking over $5,500 for the landscaping would not be impossible, but it would be pretty challenging to scrape up that kind of money right now. So, he is trying to figure out what he should do.

  

Question 1 In your opinion, whose responsibility is it to initiate the payment of this debt?

Question 2 What if London is unable to come up with the money to pay the bill when (if ) it is finally submitted? What should he do then?

Question 3 What are the options available to London in this case? Assess these using each of the following tests: (1) the Rotary Club’s four-questions test, (2) the “newspaper report” test, (3) the “explain it to my mother” test, and (4) the Golden Rule. Do you arrive at the same conclusion when applying each of these? If not, which one should London use to decide what he should do?