Imagine yourself as a paralegal working in a law office that has been tasked wit

Question

Imagine yourself as a paralegal working in a law office that has been tasked with reviewing three current cases. You will review the case studies and compose a short report for each, applying your legal knowledge and understanding of the types of business organizations. In each of the three reports, you will focus on areas of law covered in this course.

Case Study Two concentrates on contracts and landlord- tenant law.

Case Study Two:

Sam Stevens lives in an apartment building where he has been working on his new invention, a machine that plays the sound of a barking dog to scare off potential intruders. A national chain store that sells safety products wants to sell Sam’s product exclusively. Although Sam and the chain store never signed a contract, Sam verbally told a store manager several months ago that he would ship 1,000 units. Sam comes home from work one day and finds two letters in his mailbox. One is an eviction notice from his landlord, Quinn, telling him he has to be out of the apartment in 30 days because his barking device has been bothering the other tenants. It also states that Sam was not allowed to conduct a business from his apartment. Sam is angry because he specifically told Quinn that he was working on a new invention, and Quinn had wished him luck. The second letter is from the chain store, demanding that Sam deliver the promised 1,000 units immediately. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

C. Identify the rights and obligations of both the landlord and tenant under a standard residential lease agreement.

D. Based upon those rights and obligations, does Sam’s landlord have grounds to evict? Why or why not?

E. Further, what defenses might Sam raise to an eviction action? Support your response.

Explanation / Answer

C. Sam as a tenant has the right to enjoy the premises that he has rented and the obligation is that he should not use the property at the detriment of the landlord or do something in the premises which is strictly prohibited by the landlord. The landlord in this case has the right to evict the tenant in case he causes nuisance in the property and the landlord has the obligation to let the tenant enjoy the premises as long as there is no violation of the grounds of tenancy.

D. Sam's landlord has the right to evict Sam because the premise was firstly rented for residential purpose. Secondly, the nuisnace caused by Sam was escaping the premise and disturbing others which is a ground for eviction of th tenant. Thirdly, Sam did not rent a commercial premise to carry out his invention and carrying commercial activities in a residential premise is a ground for eviction.

E. Sam can raise the defense that he had already informed the landlord that he was carrying out some invention and the landlord having heared that wished him luck. This shows that the landlord irrespective of the tenancy terms impliedly agreed to what Sam was doing in his flat.

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