THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT DIMENSION At Briere’s stable, LaPlace had access to, and control over, Park Me In First at any time. Could Briere thus deny that a bailment relationship existed? Explain.

WHAT IF THE FACTS WERE DIFFERENT? Suppose that LaPlace could view his horses at any time via a Web camera installed in Briere’s stable. Would the outcome of this case have been different? Why or why not?

Michael LaPlace boarded his horses, including a trained Quarter Horse named Park Me In First, at Pierre Briere’s stable in New Jersey. Charlene Bridgwood also boarded a horse at the stable. About a dozen years earlier, LaPlace had boarded horses at the farm owned by Bridgwood’s husband. Bridgwood had often lunged the horses, including those owned by LaPlace. (Lunging is a form of exercise in which the horse moves around the handler in a circle while attached to a long line.) In 2006, while LaPlace and Briere were at a horse show, Bridgwood offered to help Briere’s shorthanded staff by lunging the horses, even though she was not an employee of the stable. During the exercise, Park Me In First suddenly reared up on his hind legs. He then collapsed with blood pumping from his nose and died. The veterinarian could not determine the cause of death without performing a necropsy (autopsy). Briere and Bridgwood offered to pay for the procedure, but none was performed because LaPlace did not authorize it until after the horse’s remains had been removed. LaPlace filed a suit in a New Jersey state court against Briere, claiming negligence. The court issued a summary judgment in the defendant’s favor. LaPlace appealed.