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camains · Mar 30, 2008, 10:26 AM

HI, I'm doing a project in my law class ( I'm actually an accounting student so law isn't my strongest area lol) and I have run into a small problem. I have been given an assignment and need to know some information on each area. We had to create a case and then do a countersuit so what I have is:
I have a caterer who is suing for the balance of payment for catering a wedding... that one is straightforward, his statement of claim and proof is contract
The defendants refuse to pay due to suffering from food poisoning... again I think I get it. They put in answer and have evidence of the food poisoning.
Now here are my problems. I plan for the defendants to countersue for the deposit they put down originally as well as the costs they incurred on cancelling the honeymoon due to illness... I don't know if there legal grounds for that... we are in Ontario, Canada. Also do you think the judge would make judgement for the defendants due to the plaintiffs having a duty of care to provide safe food?? Any help would be really appreciated.

N0help4u · Mar 30, 2008, 10:35 AM

You might also include the specific of what food got them sick was it the fault of the cater or was it the vegetable growers. In which case they would go after all involved.
Chili's Salmonella Outbreak Litigation

If you want to keep it simple though go with the prep cut veggies on the cutting board after cutting raw chicken.

Sorry I am not answering your specific questions but some ideas you might go with.

JudyKayTee · Mar 30, 2008, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by camains

HI, i'm doing a project in my law class ( i'm actually an accounting student so law isn't my strongest area lol) and i have run into a small problem. I have been given an assignment and need to know some information on each area. We had to create a case and then do a countersuit so what i have is:
I have a caterer who is suing for the balance of payment for catering a wedding....that one is straightforward, his statement of claim and proof is contract
The defendants refuse to pay due to suffering from food poisoning ....again i think i get it. they put in answer and have evidence of the food poisoning.
now here are my problems. I plan for the defendants to countersue for the deposit they put down originally as well as the costs they incurred on cancelling the honeymoon due to illness....i dont know if there legal grounds for that...we are in Ontario, Canada. Also do you think the judge would make judgement for the defendants due to the plaintiffs having a duty of care to provide safe food???? Any help would be really appreciated.

If you look at the posted rules you will see the site does not help you with homework.

We did ours and it's your turn to do yours. Do your research. The answer is out there.

camains · Mar 30, 2008, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

If you look at the posted rules you will see the site does not help you with homework.

We did ours and it's your turn to do yours. Do your research. The answer is out there.

I'm sorry. I did not see anything in the rules about helping with homework. I have no problem being told that and understanding that but to insinuate that I do not do my own work was rather rude. If I was not planning on doing the work , I could have taken a case history that was online and just used that or acted as if I was one of the parties of this case rather then explaining I was doing a project. I have spent over 2 months doing research for this project(which I only touched on in my original post) and hit a stumbling point with only these two questions. I was asking for opinions or advice on where to look, not to have my work completed for me.

To Nohelp4u... thank you. That is a geat suggestion. I was wondering how to "show evidence" that the caterer was to blame. Think the raw chicken and veggies idea will be a great starting point.

CaptainForest · Mar 30, 2008, 08:39 PM

Hello camains, don't mind Judy, she is having an off day (or at least that is what I am going to think).

Interesting case you have.

Do they have legal ground to recoup the honeymoon? Sure, why not.

They will claim food poisoning, and they will say, here are the costs of the caterer's harm to us.

You should look at counter suing others, because the Judge won't say the caterer is 100% liable, as it might not be there fault. It will depend on how you write that part of the case... but did they get bad food, etc?

For the caterer, his defence to the counter suit could be, I got this bad food from my supplier, it is not my fault.

Which is why defendant should also counter suit against those that supplied the food to the caterer.

JudyKayTee · Mar 31, 2008, 06:05 AM

[QUOTE=CaptainForest]Hello gamins, don’t mind Judy, she is having an off day (or at least that is what I am going to think).

Judy can speak for herself - "she's" was most decidedly not having an off day. "She" just thinks people should be able to do their own work, including looking up case law, explaining it, making a legal argument. This person is taking a law class and presumably some day I may retain him/her and I'd like it if he/she could actually prepare his/her own case.

Nothing new about "the Board" not doing homework - nothing new at all.

"Don't mind Judy?" Please don't patronize me, CaptainForest. I respect your answers and knowledge but would appreciate you not speaking for me.

ScottGem · Mar 31, 2008, 06:12 AM

Ok, Play nice children. ;) You guys know how I feel about asking for homework help (To Camains: the guidelines can be found here:
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/arts-l...board-b-u.html). But In my opinion, the OP did meet the guidelines. The assignment was to create a case. The OP showed he did some groundwork and was asking specific questions about what he had done.

To answer the question, In my opinion, any damages suffered by the defendant due to the actions of the plaintiff can be included in the countersuit. The problem with the countersuit, it the defendant has to show that the caterer was negligent in the storage and preparation of the food resulting in the food poisoning.

camains · Mar 31, 2008, 07:38 AM

Hi everyone,

First off, I want to say thanks for all the advice and how quickly it came. I was surprised. I'd never posted on a site before and didn't expect such quick response or evn any lol.

Judy - Don't worry. You would never want to retain me for anything legal. I am a 45 yo bookkeeper who has returned to school to get my CA designation. Lol I am just taking the basis business law class as a 2nd year requirement. Hence my confusion over judgement and legal standing.
CaptainForest/nohelp4u - Thank you for your information. I now know that I need to set up a "witness" as a former employee of the caterer who will testify that their handling of the food at the prep stage caused the food poisoning so as not to have to worry about another defendant.
Scott - Thanks for the support. Its true I have spent a lot of time on this and really couldn't find any sites with information to help me know if there was a legal standing for a ruling in favour of the defendants in the original part of the case
To everyone - Once again I apologize for posting something that was against the rules, if I was computer savy enough I might have found the rules frst lol but thank you for the input. It helps me cover my butt on a portion of this assignment in that I need to have clear food poisoning causes so as not to have a split judgement.

Thank you all

JudyKayTee · Mar 31, 2008, 07:49 AM

[QUOTE=camains]Hi everyone,

First off, I want to say thanks for all the advice and how quickly it came. I was surprised. I'd never posted on a site before and didn't expect such quick response or evn any lol.

Judy - Don't worry. You would never want to retain me for anything legal. I am a 45 yo bookkeeper who has returned to school to get my CA designation. Lol I am just taking the basis business law class as a 2nd year requirement. Hence my confusion over judgement and legal standing.
CaptainForest/nohelp4u - Thank you for your information. I now know that I need to set up a "witness" as a former employee of the caterer who will testify that their handling of the food at the prep stage caused the food poisoning so as not to have to worry about another defendant.
Scott - Thanks for the support. Its true I have spent a lot of time on this and really couldn't find any sites with information to help me know if there was a legal standing for a ruling in favour of the defendants in the original part of the case
To everyone - Once again I apologize for posting something that was against the rules, if I was computer savy enough I might have found the rules frst lol but thank you for the input. It helps me cover my butt on a portion of this assignment in that I need to have clear food poisoning causes so as not to have a split judgement.

Now that we're playing nice - your former employee/witness should be "clean;" make certain there is no bad blood between the former employee and the Defendant employer. That type of thing can come back and hurt you. Depending on the nature and extent of the lawsuit you might even be better subpoenaing someone as a witness than looking for volunteers - and that may already be the plan.

Also helpful to find past history - any other food poisoning cases?

(No need to apologize; little squabbles break out all the time.)

CaptainForest · Mar 31, 2008, 02:04 PM

Judy,

You missed 2 important points in the OP's original post.

First, he said he was an accounting student, and this was just a law course elective (therefore he has no intent to be a lawyer).

Second, he did make an attempt as he stated what the initial claim should be by the caterer and attempted on what the counterclaim should be as well.

I think the resolves the matter.

Camains,

You're welcome.

JudyKayTee · Mar 31, 2008, 02:15 PM

[QUOTE=CaptainForest]Judy,

You missed 2 important points in the OP’s original post.

First, he said he was an accounting student, and this was just a law course elective (therefore he has no intent to be a lawyer).

Second, he did make an attempt as he stated what the initial claim should be by the caterer and attempted on what the counterclaim should be as well.

I think the resolves the matter.

I thought we were dropping it and being nice - at least I tried. Plenty of people have double majors, perhaps you did not. I still don't think the board should do homework but, hey, I'm not in charge. And neither are you - last time I looked.

I'm glad you decided that the matter is resolved. I wouldn't want to be awake all night, worrying.