Reference no: EM132252185

A professional basketball player punched an opposing player in the face during the course of a game. The opponent, who was seriously injured, sued the owner of the team for damages. A jury awarded the player $222,000 [about $800,000 in 2010 dollars] for medical expenses, $200,000 [$700,000] for physical pain, $275,000 [$963,000] for mental anguish, $1,000,000 [$3.5 million] for lost earnings, and $1,500,000 [$5.2 million] in punitive damages (which was $500,000 more than requested by the player). The jury also awarded $50,000 [$150,000] to the player’s wife for loss of companionship. If we assume that the player who threw the punch acted out of personal anger and had no intention to further the business, how could the damage award against his principal be legally justified? 6. A doctor in a University of Chicago hospital seriously assaulted a patient in an examining room. The patient sued the hospital on the theory that the doctor was an agent or employee of the hospital and the assault occurred within the hospital. Is the hospital liable for the acts of its agent? Why?

Hector was employed by a machine shop. One day he made a delivery for his employer and proceeded back to the shop. When he was four miles from the shop and on the road where it was located, he turned left onto another road to visit a friend. The friend lived five miles off the turnoff. On the way to the friend’s house, Hector caused an accident. The injured person sued Hector’s employer. Is the employer liable? Discuss. The employer is not liable for the damages. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, a principal is generally liable for acts by a servant within the scope of employment but not will be liable for acts that cause physical damage by his servants 8. A fourteen-year-old boy, who had no driver’s license, took his parents’ car without permission and caused an automobile accident. A person injured in the accident sued the boy’s parents under the relevant state’s Parental Responsibility Law (mentioned in Section 39.2.1 "Principal’s Tort Liability"). Are the parents liable? Discuss.

In the past decades the Catholic Church has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards to people—mostly men—who claimed that when they were boys and teenagers they were sexually abused by their local parish priests, often on Church premises. That is, the men claimed they had been victims of child rape. Obviously, such behavior is antithetical to any reasonable standard of clergy behavior: the priests could not have been in the scope of employment. How is the Church liable?