1 In desperate financial trouble and fearful of losing his h

1.) In desperate financial trouble and fearful of losing his house, Jones asked his friend Taylor for help. Taylor has been an officer of the bank, so she put Jones in touch with some of her former colleagues there. When a $300,000 loan was ready for closing, Taylor informed Jones that she expected a commission of $15,000. Taylor threatened to block the loan if her demands were not met. Jones was desperate, so he agreed to give Taylor $4,000 in cash a promissory note for $11,000. On what grounds might Jones claim that the note is invalid? Would this be a valid defense? Even if Taylor was in the right legally, was she in the right ethically? What is her life principle?

2.) School officials fired a teacher after they saw a photo on her Facebook page that showed her looking sober, but holding a glass of wine in her hand. Her school was combating an epidemic of binge drinking and they feared her photo set a bad example for students. Should they be allowed to fire her?

3.) Clarice, a young woman with a mental disability, brought a malpractice suit against a doctor at the Medical Center. As a result, the Medical Center refused to treat her on a nonemergency basis. Clarice then went to another local clinic, which was later acquired by the Medical Center. Because the new clinic also refused to treat her, Clarice had to seek medical treatment in another town 40 miles away. Has the Medical Center violated the antitrust laws? Is it ethical to deny treatment to a patient?

4.) Virtually any TV show, movie, or song can be downloaded for free on the Internet. Most of this material is copyrighted and was very expensive to produce. Most of it is also available for a fee through such legitimate sites as iTunes. What is your ethical obligation? Should you pay $1.99 to download an episode of The Office from iTunes or take it for free from an illegal site? What is your Life Principle?

Solution

1. A promissory note is a legal financial instrument, whereby one party gives a promise in writing to another party to pay a sum of money as mentioned in the instrument.

Here Jones has given a promissory note to Taylor for an amount of $11,000. On the face of it the promissory note seems to be valid and there is no grounds to question its validity. It seems to be written and signed, is for a monetary transaction and is signed. So there is no doubt about the note\'s validity and it cannot be questioned legally.

No Taylor is not in the right ethically. She had promised to help her friend and had never mentioned about the commission. It was only in the last minute, out of greed, that she mentioned about the commission to her friend Jones. Here she is unethically taking advantage of the desperate situation of her friend and it is very wrong ethically.

2. No the school cannot be allowed to fire her. The photo is not suggesting that the teacher is induldging in binge drinking. In fact she is looking sober. At most, the school can warn the teacher to not post such pictures in future. But this cannot be the ground for firing.

There is no \"just cause\" here. Firing the teacher here can result in a wrongful termination suite against the school.

Kindly post questions #3,4 as seperate questions.