Richard's Corner: Court Cases

Assorted Reports on Court Cases

The following reports were written as part of the course work for a class in legal and ethical dimensions of business. Most of these are based on the case as described in Business: Its Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment by Marianne Jennings, 1997.

Some additional cases have been pulled from the Web. Take a look also at the Emory Law School Web Site which contains the Federal Courts finder containing abstracts of recent Federal Court decisions. The Cornell Law School Web Site also contains legal information as well as text from Federal laws such as the Uniform Commercial Code and Federal Regulations as published by the US Printing Office. Also you could browse the irreverent The 'Lectric Law Library Web site as well. Other sources include www.lawsitus.com and www.catalaw.com.

Fort Gratiot Sanitary Landfill v. Michigan Dept of Natural Resources 504 US 353 (1992)	Fort Gratiot was a land fill operator in the US state of Michigan. The state of Michigan enacted a Solid Waste Management Act in 1978 which required all counties in Michigan to develop solid waste disposal plans. In 1988, the Michigan legislature amended the act with two Waste Import Restriction amendments which allowed counties to limit the amount of solid waste from sources outside of the county. Fort Gratiot was denied a permit for operation because it accepted up to 1,750 tons per day of out-of-state waste. Fort Gratiot filed suit.
McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publishing 115 S.Ct. 879 (1995)	This is an age discrimination case made more complex by the actions of the plaintiff, McKennon, when she copied and removed certain sensitive financial documents from the defendant. One of several defenses that a business can mount against a claim of discrimination is misconduct leading to the conclusion that the termination was due to cause rather than discrimination. This case puts some limitations on the misconduct defense.
Rubin v. Marshall Field & Co. 597 N.E.2d 688 (III. 1992)	This case concerns the Implied Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose, one of the major warranties provided for by the Uniform Commercial Code in Article II. The case involves the reaction of the plaintiff, Cynthia Rubin, to an eye makeup remover to which was attributed an extreme case of contact dermatitis. The major issue in this case was whether the cosmetic's counter clerk, acting as an agent for Marshall Field as well as the manufacturer of the makeup remover, had provided a Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose.