nternal Memo Assignment
Assume that you are a first-year Associate working at Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, the largest and most prestigious law firm in Miami, Florida. On your first assignment, you are assigned to work with Noah Melnick, the head of the firms Litigation Department.
After returning from the winter holiday break, you got a call to report to Mr. Melnicks office for an 11:00 a.m. meeting with a potential new client, James Sullivan. Not only is James Sullivan of an old friend of Mr. Melnick from New York Law School, but he is also a lawyer who served as a law clerk for several federal judges in town.
At the meeting, James Sullivan described how he and his family traveled to Marco Island, Florida to visit his in-laws. Also, James Sullivan described how he had intended to take his five-year-old daughter to a popular theme park in Orlando, Florida after visiting his in-laws. However, he did not make it to the popular theme park because of multiple unfortunate events.
Because James Sullivans in-laws had other guests visiting during the same time, James Sullivan, as well as his wife (Mary Sullivan) and five-year-old daughter (Lucy Sullivan), decided to stay at the Broad Ripple Hotel, a budget hotel in a rough section of Naples, Florida. The hotel possesses a strict no pet policy. James Sullivan was aware of this fact at the time of the booking because he considered traveling with his Boston Terrier, Sonny, but did not do so because of the hotels no pet policy. James Sullivan booked and paid for the hotel via a third-party internet travel site, CheapestHotels.com, which operates out of Bulgaria.
During the check-in procedure, James Sullivan signed a stack of paperwork handed to him by the hotels receptionist. One of the pages of the paper included the following language:
“By the execution of this agreement, I accept and assume full responsibility for any and all injuries, damages (both economic and non-economic), and losses of any type, which may occur to me or my guest, and I hereby fully and forever release and discharge the company, its insurers, employees, officers, directors, and associates, from any and all claims, demands, damages, rights of action, or causes of action, present or future, whether the same be known or unknown, anticipated, or unanticipated, resulting from or arising out the use of the facilities of this hotel during my stay.”
On the second night of the stay at Broad Ripple Hotel, James Sullivan received a few emails from his law office about a pressing legal matter. While he worked on some legal research, he told his wife and daughter to go down to the hotel pool for a few hours of fun before dinner. After an hour, James Sullivan received a call from his wife, who was yelling about how a horrible accident happened at the pool, and he needed to come down to the pool immediately. She then hung up the phone.
Thinking the worst and in a state of panic, James Sullivan threw on a pair of shoes but did not tie his shoelaces. On his way, James Sullivan tripped down a flight of stairs, strained his ankle and ripped his suit pants. When he got to the pool, he confronted a horrible sight: his daughters face was full of blood, and his wife was in tears. Unsure of what happened, James Sullivan started yelling, What happened to my daughter?
His wife (Mary) told him that his daughter (Lucy) was bitten in the face by a dog. According to Mary, an elderly couple (Mr. Edward Kettles and Mrs. Jackie Kettles) were sitting at the poolside bar with a Greyhound dog named Baby Killer, which was wearing a red vest with white lettering that indicated that the dog was a service dog. James Sullivans wife stated that Lucy approached the couple after exiting the pool and asked if she could pet their dog. The couple agreed but warned Lucy not to pet the dog on his back. Unfortunately, Lucy did not listen, and the dog nipped her face. That caused three large lacerations on Lucys face.
At the time of the dog bite, Mary had been drinking a beer, while chatting up the beefy lifeguard on duty at the time. After the dog bit Lucy, Mary passed out at the sight of blood. However, she quickly regained her senses and then called her husband, James.
Rather than calling an ambulance or the police, one of the hotel employees (Harry Sanchez) told James that he was willing to drive the family to the local hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in Naples, Florida. Unable to think straight, James Sullivan agreed to allow the hotel employee to drive them to the hospital.
After waiting three hours for service, the doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center told James Sullivan that they were unable to repair Lucys face because the hospital did not have a pediatric plastic surgeon on staff. During the three hours of waiting, the doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center only cleaned and put bandages on Lucy’s three wounds.
The doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center then told James that he should never have brought his daughter to the hospital and instead should have taken his daughter to the Children’s Hospital in Naples, Florida. After that, James Sullivan, who was by then limping due to his sprained ankle, called a taxi to take his family to the Children’s Hospital.
After thirty minutes, a taxi owned by a company called the Naples Taxi Company driven by Charles Norwood (a retired naval officer who is eighty-five years old), arrived. While driving to the Children’s Hospital, Charles Norwood, who has epilepsy, suffered a seizure. Because of the seizure, Charles Norwood lost control over the taxi.
The taxi crashed into another car and caused serious injuries to the driver of the car hit. James Sullivan suffered minor injuries, his wife, Mary suffered major injuries, and his daughter, Lucy, miraculously suffered no further injuries.
The ambulance that arrived at the scene of the accident took Lucy to the Childrens Hospital, where skilled plastic surgeons repaired her facial lacerations caused by the dog bite incident that occurred earlier in the day.
At present, doctors are unable to determine whether her facial scars are permanent. However, Lucy is now terrified of dogs, suffers from nightmares, and her classmates at school have started to call her names. In addition to her facial scars that are currently healing, Lucy has suffered from nightmares since the dog bite.
James ankle sprain has healed, but he has trouble sleeping. Mary is still in the hospital with multiple injuries. But James has not visited his wife since returning home because he blames her for the incident.
After returning home, James Sullivan conducted some independent research online, and he discovered that the Big Service Dog Company (i.e., the company that issued the service dog vest and registration papers to the Kettles family) issues thousands of service dog registration papers per year. Located in Buffalo, New York, Big Service Dog Company does not conduct any dog training. Instead, the company asks its customers to attest to a series of facts. The customers are required to state that they have a disability, that they possess a legitimate need for the dog to assist them, that they will comply with all state laws, and that they agree to train their dog as a service dog.
According to James research, Jackie Kettles has an anxiety disorder. However, their dog named Baby Killer is a retired Greyhound race dog that had no service dog training. James also discovered that the no employee of the Broad Ripple Hotel asked the Kettles to produce any evidence that Killer received any service dog training because they believed that such an inquiry would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.
After the meeting, Mr. Melnick asked you to write an internal legal memorandum, no longer than five to seven-pages, that discusses the merits of claims that James Sullivan and his family may have, given the above fact pattern. Mr. Melnick further told you to consult the applicable law and make a recommendation on whether the firm should retain James Sullivan as a client. He then handed you the access code for the firm’s Nexis Uni account and told you to research the applicable law on that site. Mr. Melnick also directed you to look at CUNY School of Laws website for an example of an internal legal memo, and to use that format for your memo. Next, Mr. Melnick told you that you should also note whether any additional information is needed. He further wants you to use Bluebook citation when citing any applicable laws, cases, or other resources.
Requirements: see comments