Business Legal Issues
Question: YOU BE THE JUDGE: Using the content from your textbook and referenced sources, fully discuss all of the following legal issues and apply the rule of law. The best answer will clearly identify the legal issues, apply the correctly stated rule of law to the facts and draw a definitive legal conclusion to the question. It will further apply the law along with applicable case studies, defenses and remedies to support the legal idea where applicable. There will be a Rubric posted on Canvas for this assignment with the point distribution. Each question is worth 5 points for a total of 100 points. The paper format must be double spaced. You must answer the full question for full credit for the question. This assignment must be uploaded through Canvas. I will only grade the assignments through Canvas. If you send it directly to my HCC email-address I will not be able to convert it to Canvas and therefore you will not receive credit. Also, I will take point off for grammar and sentence structure. I expect you to deliver a clear, concise and fully reasoned Business Law Paper. Michael Jackson was hired in January as the new Operations Manager for Just Collect It, Inc, a Texas toy assembly plant also known as JCI. As the Operations Manager Michaels duties included contract negotiations, accounts receivables & payables, Human Resources & scheduling, shipping & receiving and purchasing. Michael recognized that the duties agreed upon were customarily performed by 3-5 people, and or 3-5 departments, but due to budget concerns JCI was convinced that the right Operations Manager would be effective in all of the assigned tasks. Michael was aware that the 5 previous Operations Managers were overwhelmed with the job duties and resigned within 6 months of being hired. Michael was informed upon hiring that JCI did not have a Contracts, Account Receivable, HR, Shipping and or Purchasing department or positions because of budget restrictions and they had absolutely no intention of filing the positions. Michael was convinced that he had the solution to succeed at each duty. As operations manager Michael would receive an annual salary of $250,000. Michael realized that he truly needed 4 senior type positions, which required experience and education, to assist him to assist him to success. The collective salary for all 4 of the positions needed would be over $250,000. He knew the company would not budget for the additional help so he had to create an alternative solution to succeed. Once Michael took over the leadership role, while being fully aware of the corporations decision not to hire any additional labor, he made the executive decision to hire 4 inexperienced recent high school graduates to handle some of the task that was assigned to him. Michael had success in the past hiring fresh minds as he calls it. He enjoyed training young employees in the methods he preferred them to use. Hence, he hired Carl to handle the contracting, Alice for general accounting and Accounts receivable, Harry for HR demands and scheduling and Paula for purchasing. Michael retained all the other duties and felt his time would be best spent keeping a close eye on the new hires and overseeing the assembly workers. To offset budget concerns Michael used $72,000.00 of his $250,00000 and paid the new hires directly from his personal account. Their employment setup provided for pay only, they did not receive any health, retirement, 401K or workman compensation. They did not have any federal or social security withholdings. They were scheduled to receive their full hourly rate without deduction every Friday. Each employee would receive $18,000.00 annually in pay. The experienced professional would have commanded $62,500.00 for the position. Carl After Michael trained all 4 new-hires he let them lose at the jobs they were hired to do. The first act of business for Carl, by the way only 16 years old and graduated at the top of his class, was negotiating and fully executing a contract to sale 100 model cars for $1000 to Just Buy It (JBI). JBI was in the business of auctioning off the model cars and it was a very profitable business. Carl offered sell via email JBI 100 model cars for $1000. Despite JBIs previous experiences with JCI they were thrilled at the opportunity and accepted immediately via email. They did want JCI to withdraw the offer so they immediately sent a carrier over to JCI with the $1000 check. Carl accepted the check and deposited into the company account. JBI made on average $200 for every car sold. Their previous 5 contracts with JCI was for the purchase of 100 for $5000 which was $4000 less than the last 5 previous contracts with JBI. Alice On Alices first day on the job she noticed that Company X was had 2 years of outstanding accounts receivables to JCI totaling $10,000.00. She knew Company X was a start-up company and wanted to give them a fresh start as Xavier the owner of the company just happened to be her favorite uncle. The second week on the job Alice created an Accounting statement which showed that Company X had paid his account JCI in full. Subsequent to Alice creating the accounting statement JCI applied for a $1,000,000.00 with Bank Generous. Bank Generous used the Accounting statement that Alice created to approve the loan to JCI. Their approval was based on numbers that were off by $10,000.00. The bank president informed the JCI executives that they just barely fit the requirements for the loan. They also mentioned that had their numbers be off by as much as $100, they would not have qualified for the loan. Paul After the 5th day of Paul doing the purchasing job, he discovered that he had access to over $1,000,000.00 in cash and credit. After seeing how things operated, Paul decided he would make a small purchase to make his baby bothers 13th birthday the most amazing ever. Using the companys credit card Paul charged both the Xbox and Playstation and several accompanying games for both systems, totaling over $1000.00. Paul intended to return the money by repaying his company $10 out of his check each week until the $1000 was paid in full. Harry Harry was given the pen to make Human Resources decisions. He decided to call Ronald Taylor, an assembly line worker to the office and released him of his duties with the company. Harry told Ronald that they no longer needed him at JCI. He instructed him to clean out his locker and leave the premises immediately. Harry had the police officer on duty at the assembly plant escort Ronald out of the building. Turns out, Ronald took Harrys high school sweet-heart and married her shortly after graduation. Ronald was the starting Quarterback and Harrys girlfriend was attracted to athletes. At the time Texas was an At Will State. An At Will work state allows employers, that do not have a written work agreement, to terminate an any for without cause as long as the termination does not violate any state or federal law. Michael Michael was notified by the Executive assistant of JCIs president that a scandal about the company would break in the news in days to come. She said that the scandal would negatively impact stock value of JCI. In fact, Michael was informed that all of the top executives were cashing in their stock so as not to lose the lifes savings. One of the top executives suggested strongly that Michael sell his stock while it still had value. Michael gave it some thought for a few days and told his broker to sell it all. He recognized a handsome profit. After cashing in his stock he admitted that he would not have cashed it in if it were not for the executives giving him the warning and basically insisting that he sell. The day after the sale of Michaels stock the value of JCI dropped more than 75%. Most of their investors lost 100% of their investments. Michaels broker inadvertently sold 75% of his stock instead of the entire 100% that Michael requested. Michael knew a wealthy older woman who had no knowledge of the devalued stock and offered to sell her his shares at a bargain price of $100 per share the next day. The stock had already nose-dived and the stock that he was selling to the woman had no actual value at all. She purchased 1250 shares at a rate of $100 a share for total of $125,000.00. The woman asked him 3 times if the sock was profitable stock and he assured her it was. Five days after Michael sold his stock, the SEC visited him at JCI. The SEC took Michael into the back office for an interrogation. Michael insisted that he want to call his lawyer buy the Federal Officers just continued their questioning. After refusing to answer any questions they took him to lead him to the police car and took him to the county jail. At no time did they read him is Maranda rights. Upon arrival at the station they continue to refuse Michaels request to call his attorney. Additionally, he was not specifically told what he was being charged with and he was held in a holding cell for 80 days. His holding cell did not heat and temperatures fell to as low as 10 below zero in the cell he was kept in. On the 81 first day Michael was taken before a judge and gave his plea of Nolo Contendere. 1. Was any of Michaels rights violated when he was interrogated by the federal police officer after he requested the to have his attorney present at JCI? Were there violations at the county jail? 2. What agency or tort violation did Michael commit against JCI if any? Would Negligent Hiring be one Michaels violations? 3. Clearly define negligence and apply the rules to facts to determine if Michael was negligent. 4. Will the contract that Carl created with JBI be enforceable? What remedies or defenses if any are available for both Carl, JCI and JBI? 5. Applying the elements of a valid contract, did JBI created a valid, enforceable contract with Carl? 6. Was Carls age an issue in the contracting, why or why not, explain? If JCI asserts that Carl was a minor and did not have the capacity to contract with JBI, will that fact give JCI grounds to claim avoidance? Will JCI be successful on the claim, why or why not? 7. Is there a way to require Carl to indemnify JCI for their losses? Regarding Carls act of contracting with JBI, if JBI sues to enforce specific performance of the contract executed by Carl, will they prevail, why or why not? 8. What agency rules can JCI make to get out of the contract? Will they be successful? What agency claims can JCI make against Carl and will they prevail against him? 9. Is there any possible way that JCI can assert that Carl was an Independent Contractor of JCI? Explain how the book defines Independent Contractor and why you take your position of Carls Independent Contractor status. 10. Applying the legal elements to the facts, If JCI asserts that the verbal contract executed between Carl and JBI was unenforceable because it violated the Statute of Fraud, would they be successful? 11. When Alice wrote off the debt owed by her uncle, did she violate any laws? If so, what laws did she violate? 12. Will Company X be required to repay the debt if JCI attempt to overturn Alices actions of excusing Company X $10,000.00 debt? 13. If JCI uses Alices accounting statement to secure a loan and the banks relies on the statement to approve the loan to JCI in the amount of $1,000,000.00, will there be any legal liability for the incorrect reporting in Alices accounting statement? If there is liability, what is it, and are there any defenses? 14. Is there a way to require Alice to indemnify JCI for their losses? Lastly, is Alice bound by GAAS, why or why not? 15. Distinguish the difference between law and ethics. List all of the ethical dilemmas Michael faced in this scenario? 16. When the bank used the accounting statement created by Alice to approve the $1,000,000.00 loan, did this make Alice violate the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002? Explain the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? 17. What is the legal procedure that Michael was given when he went before the judge on the 81st day of detainment and made the pleas of Nolo Contendere? What does Nolo Contendere mean? 18. What tort violation, if any, did Michael commit when he sold the devalued stock to Freda? 19. Assuming Harry works in an At Will work state, was he within his authority to fire the Ronald Taylor? 20. When Paul took the money to purchase the game system, did he commit the crime of embezzlement or conversion? Did he have the Mens Rea and Actus Reus to be guilty of conversion, embezzlement or larceny? Explain the elements of Mens Rea and Actus Reus.