Posted: September 7th, 2017

In which of these situations is Randall most clearly liable in negligence?

In which of these situations is Randall most clearly liable in negligence?
(a) At half past midnight, hoping to impress his girlfriend who is waiting in a
parked car, Jared hops a 10-foot chain-link fence onto Randall’s property to pick
some roses out of Randall’s garden. Feeling his way through the darkness, Jared
trips over a tangled clump of thick electrical cord and falls into a koi pond. The
cord is more than 75 years old and has visibly broken insulation. When it
contacts the water, the cord shoots 240 volts of alternating current into the pond
and through Jared’s body. Jared is unable to escape the pond as the electrical
current locks his muscles in a continuous state of contraction. The electricity does
not cut out, since Randall previously circumvented the circuit breakers to the
garden outlets. Jared suffers severe, lasting, and permanent damage to multiple
internal organs.
(b) Lord Marbury has accepted Randall’s invitation for a game of croquet in the
garden on a Sunday afternoon. While walking to the fourth wicket, Lord
Marbury suddenly disappears through the ground in a spray of dust and
mulched grass clippings. Peering through the resulting hole, Randall sees Lord
Marbury 20 feet below, writhing in agony from two broken tibias, surrounded by
rotting wooden wine barrels. “I’m so sorry!” Randall calls down to Marbury, “I
had no idea!” Then Randall whispers to himself under his breath, “I should have
inspected this property for abandoned underground wine cellars before inviting
people to play on the lawn.”
(c) Down below Randall’s house and gardens, next to an elementary school, is an
unimproved tract of land with a glen of trees in a steep ravine. As Randall
knows, the creek at the bottom of the ravine is prone to flash flooding in winter.
This is where Randall decides to stow his collection of 15-foot-tall statues of the
Care Bears. Able to see a glimpse of Funshine Bear from the four-square courts,
more than a dozen kindergartners climb on to Randall’s property and down into
the ravine, where a sudden deluge drowns three children and injures nine more.
(d) Following the injuries to Jared, Lord Marbury, and the kindergartners, Randall
hires the very reputable Slayton Engineering Group to thoroughly investigate his
entire estate for any hazards that might injure anyone. The firm gives Randall’s
property a clean bill of health. The next week, at the bed-and-breakfast that
Randall operates on the far corner of his property, a just-married couple staying
in the honeymoon suite is killed when carbon-dioxide from volcanic activity
under the property (never previously known in the area) seeps out and smothers
the newlyweds overnight.
(e) Extremely upset about the undiscovered volcanic-gas condition, Randall calls up
Slayton Engineering Group and leaves a voice mail: “Could you please come out
to the bed-and-breakfast and re-inspect that portion of the property as soon as
possible? Thanks.” While on site hours later, two SEG engineers are overcome by
the gas and die