1. Simon Cowell is a talent agent who travels throughout New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts seeking talented musicians to represent. Once he locates a musician, he and the musician negotiate a contract where Simon gets paid based on the engagements that he books for the musician. Simon finds a very talented 25 year old singer performing in New York City, Della Belella. That same evening, in New York, the two negotiate and sign a contract for the talent agent services. Della tells Simon that she actually lives in Pennsylvania, although she does perform in New York at least twice per month. Della and Simon get into a contract dispute and Della sues Simon in Pennsylvania. Does Simon have to travel to Pennsylvania to defend himself? Why or why not?

2. ShaliMama is a very successful wholesale distributer of appliances owned by Samuel Savvy. Samuel decides he wants to sell his company and by email contacts Jungle.com, an online retailer, to offer them the chance to purchase the company for $10 million. Jungle.com replies that they are interested and "will pay the $10 million but only if they can close by September 1st." Samuel does not respond to that email and sends an email to eHarbor.com offering to sell them the company. eHarbor replies that they "will pay the $10 million." ShaliMama and eHarbor announce the sale and Jungle quickly objects, telling the press that Jungle and ShaliMama had a deal. Did they? Why or why not?

3. Ronald McDonald is a real estate developer who wants to purchase a building from Bark Nuban. Ronald offers Bark $1 million cash for the building payable over 5 years. Bark responds that "$1 million is fine, but it must be paid in cash at closing". 3 days after this response, Ronald finds another building and contracts to purchase that building instead. Bark is very upset and argues that he and Ronald "had a deal". Was Ronald obligated to purchase the building from Bark? Why or why not?

4. Mr. Met sends an email to Phil E. Fanatic offering to purchase his baseball card collection for $50 as long as he accepts by November 1. On November 1 Phil replies by email to Mr. Met accepting his offer but due to email server problems Mr. Met does not get Phil's response until November 3. On November 2 Mr. Met purchases baseball cards from someone else. Phil sues Mr. Met to enforce their agreement. Is he correct? Why or why not?

5. You are the owner of a car dealership seeking to hire a chief financial officer. After conducting intensive interviews, You decide to make an offer to Simon Slick and Simon accepts the offer. After you have made the offer and Simon has accepted, you try to get insurance bonding on him as you have done for all Chief Financial Officers at your company. (The bonding is insurance to protect you in case the CFO would steal or embezzle money, since the CFO has such control over the finances of the business.) As the insurance company does the required background check for the bonding, they find that Simon has a criminal conviction for a felony and is not eligible to be bonded. You are shocked because during the interview, Simon indicated that he had nothing in his past that would prevent a company from getting an insurance bond for his performance. Do you have a binding contract with the candidate? Why or why not?

Example of Analysis needed for Assignment answers: IRAC method. In the assignments for this semester, you will be asked to evaluate fact situations. I expect every answer to Identify the legal issue, define and explain the legal reasoning applicable, analyze the facts using that legal reasoning and state a conclusion that reasonably follows from the analysis. The following is an example of my expectation:

Joe Smith is a salesperson for Weatherproof, a company that sells storm windows and which is located in Pennsylvania. WeatherProof has shown that the windows minimize rain and other moisture infiltrating siding of a house. Joe decides to market the windows in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and travels to each of those states. He gives sample windows to potential customers in Louisiana, Mississippi and in Alabama. He also makes sales in Florida. In what states would WeatherProof face personal Jurisdiction in state courts?

(Identification of legal issue) The legal issue in this case is personal jurisdiction, that is the power of a state court to hear a case against a defendant from a different state. (Explain Legal reasoning that applies) In order for a court to hear a case against an out of state defendant, that defendant must have sufficient "minimum contact" with the state. One way to define this is to ask whether the Defendant chose to do business in the state, and in particular whether the defendant should have reasonably anticipated being sued in that state based on those business activities.

(Analysis of facts) In this case, Joe Smith has travelled to 4 states where he might have "done business". In three of the states, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, he merely gave samples and did not make sales. The lack of sales probably does not give rise to the level of doing business required for personal jurisdiction. However, Joe and Weatherproof did choose to do business in Florida when they made sales there. (Conclusion) Thus, Joe and Weatherproof will face personal jurisdiction only in Florida.

1. Simon Cowell is a talent agent who travels throughout New York,...