26. Tenant is leasing retail space in the Central Park Plaza building in New York. Tenant has signed a one-year lease and is 3 months into that lease.  Tenant suffers a downturn in revenue and concludes that he can no longer lease this space.  The monthly rent is $10,000.  After tenant defaults on the lease, landlord sues tenant for $90,000.  What is tenant’s strongest defense to reduce or eliminate this potential $90,000 liability?

2. For approximately a year Sally’s neighbor has been throwing parties on the weekends.  The parties are often very loud and last late into the night.  Sally’s three children have a hard time sleeping during these parties.  Sally comes to you for advice on what legal steps to take to stop or limit the neighbor’s parties.  Sally is not interested in contacting the police.  Which of the following legal actions would be her most effective remedy?

30. Allison enters into a contract with a Broadway music shop owner, agreeing to pay $200 for an unopened copy of a special Julie Andrews album once the shop receives it.  Prior to the sale the shop owner repudiated the agreement, offering no explanation.  Allison was distraught because she planned to bring the special Julie Andrews album on a family trip where she was going to see her grandmother, who is a huge Julie Andrews fan.  However, ironically, Allison discovers that her grandmother was such a huge fan that she already had multiple copies of the special Julie Andrews album, including an unopened copy that the grandmother actually gave to Allison as a gift.Just on principle, Allison sues the shop owner for breach of contract. What type of damages would Allison most likely be able to recover?

15. A homeowner entered into a written agreement with a contractor whereby the contractor agreed to completely remodel the homeowner’s bathroom “to her specifications” at a cost of $10,000.  The homeowner’s specifications were highly detailed and required custom-made fixtures that would not be usable in other bathroom remodeling jobs.  The contractor ordered the custom-made fixtures and paid $4,000 for them when they were delivered to his place of business.  Due to a mathematical error made by the contractor when bidding the job, the contractor was going to break even and not make a profit on the job after paying for the materials and workers. Before the contractor began work on the project, but after he had paid for the fixtures, the homeowner had a change of heart and told the contractor that she had decided to sell the house, and would not need the customized bathroom. The contractor is likely to recover:

28. Due to the success of their video game, the creators of “Land of Oz” entered into an agreement with a contractor to build “Oz,” a large amusement park that featured many of the popular video game’s elements. Shortly after construction began on the $1 million-dollar contract, the creators decided that they would rather use the money to create different video games, and subsequently informed the contractor that they would not move forward with the project.  At the time of the breach, the contractor had expended $175,000 in labor and materials.  Hoping the creators would change their minds about the project, the contractor instructed his crew to continue working, and the project was completed for a total cost of $950,000.   When the contractor presented the Land of Oz creators with the bill, they refused to pay.  If the contractor sues the Land of Oz creators for breach of contract, will he prevail?

22. James decided to intentionally copy a book written by Paula.  This is a clear violation of the copyright laws.  James has been very successful in his marketing of Paula’s book.  When Paula discovered the infringement, she brings suit against James. It is uncertain whether Paula incurred damages for lost sales, however, Paula proves that James made $100,000 in profits from his sale of her book.  What damages will Paula most likely to obtain?

6. Destiny embezzled $5,000 from her employer.  She put the money into her bank account which had $1,000 of Destiny’s own money.  She took the entire $6,000 and bought shares of Apple. The Apple shares doubled in value over 2 months.  At that time, the employer discovered the embezzlement and sues Destiny.  What damages is the employer likely to get?

23. Brad made an offer to buy an expensive painting from the Acme Art Gallery.  He makes a written offer to buy the painting for $200,000.  In order to make it clear to Acme that he is serious, he encloses a deposit of $10,000 with his offer.  Acme thinks a long time about the offer and cashes Brad’s check.  Finally, Acme decides to reject the offer.  Acme refuses to refund Brad’s deposit.  If Brad sues Acme for the $10,000, how would that amount most likely be characterized?

19. Sally breaks into Joe’s house in the middle of the night.  Sally has always been annoyed with Joe ever since he embarrassed her in a game of Pictionary three years earlier. Sally decides to exact her revenge by stealing and destroying Joe’s favorite framed photograph, an original Ansel Adams photograph worth $4,000.  She successfully steals the photograph and destroys it by burning it.  Joe sues Sally for $4,000 and also seeks punitive damages. What is the amount of punitive damages that the court will most likely award Joe in this case?

14. A distributor of remote control cars and a toy store owner entered into a written contract providing that the distributor will provide the toy store owner 30 remote control cars at the price of $50 a piece, to be delivered by November 1, in time for the holiday shopping season.  The toy store owner chose to buy from this distributor because its price was lower than that of other distributors.  Shortly after the toy store owner placed his order, the distributor raised its prices because there was a sudden surge in popularity of this type of remote control car.  Because the distributor did not have enough of the remote control cars in stock, the distributor chose to only fill the orders of customers who were going to pay the higher price.  The distributor notified the toy store owner that it would not fill the toy store owner’s order.  The toy store owner filed an action to force the distributor to deliver the remote control cars to him at the agreed-upon price.  Will the court compel the distributor to deliver the remote control cars to the toy store owner?