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Show Pender's Courtroom Potent lea Illegal Ruse Customer Always Right By Will Bernard, LL.B. at.u iaw vary. For personal Jci" your local attorney. s Is it Negligence to Throw a Piece Of Dry Ice into the Street? Having sold out his stock, an ice cream vendor tossed a left-over piece of dry ice on the street and headed for home. Some children plaving nearby picked up the steaming object and put it in a bottle. Then, in an experimental mood, they added a little water screwed on the bottle top, and shook well. It wasn't long before the expanding gases burst the container, con-tainer, and a small boy was injured in-jured by flying glass. When he sued the vendor for damages, the latter argued: "How could I foresee fore-see that children would go to such lengths in playing with a discarded piece of dry ice?" But the court held him liable for the mishap. The judge said the vendor should have known that the ice was both fascinating fas-cinating and dangerous to childrenand chil-drenand so should not have left it within easy reach. Can You Get Into Trouble By Capturing the Wrong "Criminal?" A woman drove into a garage one day and asked the manager to drain and refill her radiator. The man drained it, but instead of refilling it he turned to the woman and said: "You look like a criminal crimi-nal to me. Stay right here until I call the police." He did only to learn that his hunch was wrong. Shamefacedly, the man refilled the radiator and let the woman go on her way. A few days later, she sued him for false imprisonment. His defense was: "I didn't really 'imprison' her. I didn't even touch her. She could have left the place at any time." However, the court granted the woman's claim. The judge said that the man's trick of keeping her in the garage, by leaving the radiator empty, was effective enough to constitute "imprisonment." Is a Storekeeper Liable For Shaking His Fisf In a Customer's Face? A man bought a sweater for his wife. However, it didn't fit properly proper-ly and she decided to return it. By an unfortunate mistake, the woman took the garment back to the wrong store and demanded a refund. The merchant was furious. He not only ordered her out of the store but also shook his fist under her nose to emphasize his feelings. Later the woman sued him for assault. as-sault. The merchant protested: "I had a perfect right to get sore. She was trying to palm off somebody some-body else's goods on me." But the court held the man liable. The judge said that, whether he was right or wrong in the argument, he still had no cause to threaten the woman with physical violence. May You Shoo Pests Over To Your Neighbor's Property? A farmer was standing in his cornfield when he spied a swarm of locusts approaching. To protect his property, he managed to shoo the pests away-and they settled instead on the neighboring farm. There they fell to work and rav- , aged the neighbor's corn and potato po-tato crops. Afterward the neighbor neigh-bor sued for damages, but the court turned down his claim The judye said the farmer had a right 1 Jo defend his property against this : common enemy"-and wasn't re- I sponsible for what the enemy did somewhere else1 Noticing that one of his cus- ( omers was in a drunkp) bartender decided to have a little na fh t0" 3 SC'SSOrS a,ld- h0'd- ng the man down, cut off most of i hair. By the Urr.e the inexpert sn pping was over, the poor fellow ' a disrra, s,ght. After sobering ' "P. he had the bartender arres ed or. cnm.nal charges. At the trial the defendant contended: "Maybe wasn t such a Rood joke j H. but still I didn't do the man ny real harn!." However, the court f'Jund the bartender guilty |