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Torts Assignment #2
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Question:
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You and your brother own a small boutique in the downtown area of your city. Your store sells unique furniture and other unusual household items. Since the store is located near a vibrant business center, you have heavy traffic throughout the day, especially before work, at lunchtime and immediately after work. A couple days ago, the city finished installing new pipes on your street. Afterwards, you noticed that the sidewalk was now uneven; before the construction, it was even. In addition, one of your regular customers mentioned to your brother that there was a bump in the sidewalk. When you arrived to work today, your brother told you that a first-time customer had tripped on the uneven sidewalk, fell and broke her wrist. Your brother is the one who called the ambulance for her. Fast forward four months. You and your brother were just served with a lawsuit for the sidewalk slip and fall incident, seeking damages of $15,000. Before talking to your lawyer, you want to find out what your liability might be. Accordingly, do a Lexis search to find out how this type of case would be handled in your jurisdiction. Specifically, while going through the steps of negligence (duty and breach) answer the following: what duty did the store, you and/or your brother have to your shoppers? Why? Is your store, you and/or your brother personally liable or is some other party (who?) to blame? Why? I will post comments to this scenario by the next class (January 5, 2003).
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