4. The Law and Difficult Situations Answer 3 of the six parts of the question. S

Question

4. The Law and Difficult Situations Answer 3 of the six parts of the question. Since there are no right answers to this question, the question will be graded according to the quality of your reasoning, and no specific answers will be given on the answer sheet. If you were in charge of making the law, how would your law deal with the following situations? What principle of law would you apply? A judge applying your law might require additional information before rendering a judgment. If so, indicate what that additional information would be (a) John Smith, Sr. gives his car keys to John Smith, Jr., who is an authorized driver on his father's policy, to drive to a concert downtown. The car is involved in an automobile accident when driven not by John but by one of his friends, Mike. John Smith Sr.'s insurance company refuses to pay, because Mike is not an authorized driver (b) The Jones' live in a neighborhood where it is regarded as unfriendly to put up fences. i) The next-door neighbor's dog wanders into the Jones' back yard and bites their toddler. ii) The Jones' toddler strays into the next-door neighbor's yard where he is bitten by the next -door neighbor's dog. (Answer for each case) (c) You live in an apartment without a lake view in a rent-controlled apartment building. You have been on a waiting list for three years to move to an apartment in the same building with a lake view. Finally, you reach the top of the waiting list and an apartment with a lake view becomes available, but the landlord gives it to a friend of his who has not been on the waiting list (d) You visit friends for the weekend. While you and your friends are out for the day, their house is burglarized and your uninsured iPad Air is stolen (e) During a Santa Ana windstorm your next-door neighbor's tree falls on your house. Your next-door neighbor's insurance policy does not cover the damage (f) Your next-door neighbor is an alcoholic and a heavy smoker. One night his house catches fire and the fire spreads to your house. Your insurance covers your property damage subject to a deductible, but not all the inconvenience your family suffers.

Explanation / Answer

1. No, the insurance company is not liable to pay because the principle of "Utmost Good Faith" is violated, which states that both the parties will act in the interest of taking utmost care of the insured good. In this case since Mike, who is not an authorized driver has been given the car to drive, so there is a negligence on the part of the insured.

2. In the first case, the neighbors are liable to pay Mr. Jones since Mr. Jones is acting according to the societal norms of not putting up the fence and thus upholding the integrity and culture of the locality that he is living in. However, if Mr. Jones toddler enters the neighbor's locality, then Mr. Jones is not entitled to any compensation from his neighbor's.

3. The landlord is liable to pay you compensation if in there is a written agreement that only the people on the waiting list are entitled to get that apartment, and no relatives/friends would be given preference if his name in not in the list in such matter. However, if there is no such agreement, then the owner has the right to give the apartment to whoever he wishes to.

4. No one is entitled for any compensation in this case because the IPad wasn't insured, and secondly, there isn't any pre-written agreement which states that my friend is responsible for all the belongings that I keep in his house.

5. The insurance policy might just be restricted to only the damages caused within the boundaries of the house, and any other damage caused by any house item/resource outside the boundary of the house will not be insured in this case.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse 4
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.