1. Joan, who is sixteen years old, moves out of her parents’ home and signs a one-year lease for an apartment at Kenwood Apartments. Joan’s parents tell her that she can return to live with them at any time. Unable to pay the rent, Joan moves back to her parents’ home two months later. Can Kenwood enforce the lease against Joan? Why or why not?
2. A famous New York City hotel, Hotel Lux, is noted for its food as well as its luxury accommodations. Hotel Lux contracts with a famous chef, Chef Perlee, to become its head chef at $30,000 per month. The contract states that should Perlee leave the employment of Hotel Lux for any reason, he will not work as a chef for any hotel or restaurant in New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania for a period of one year. During the first six months of the contract, Hotel Lux heavily advertises Perlee as its head chef, and business at the hotel is excellent. Then a dispute arises between the hotel’s management and Perlee, and Perlee terminates his employment. One month later, he is hired by a famous New Jersey restaurant just across the New York state line. Hotel Lux learns of Perlee’s employment through a large advertisement in a New York City newspaper. It seeks to enjoin (prevent) Perlee from working in that restaurant as a chef for one year. Discuss how successful Hotel Lux will be in its action.
3. Joanne is a seventy-five-year-old widow who survives on her husband’s small pension. Joanne has become increasingly forgetful, and her family worries that she may have Alzheimer’s disease (a brain disorder that seriously affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities). No physician has diagnosed her, however, and no court has ruled on Joanne’s legal competence. One day while she is out shopping, Joanne stops by a store that is having a sale on pianos and enters into a fifteen-year installment contract to buy a grand piano. When the piano arrives the next day, Joanne seems confused and repeatedly asks the delivery person why a piano is being delivered. Joanne claims that she does not recall buying a piano. Explain whether this contract is void, voidable, or valid. Can Joanne avoid her contractual obligation to buy the piano? If so, how?
4. State X requires that persons who prepare and serve liquor in the form of drinks at commercial establishments be licensed by the state to do so. The only requirement for obtaining a yearly license is that the person be at least twenty-one years old. Mickey, aged thirtyfive, is hired as a bartender for the Southtown Restaurant. Gerald, a staunch alumnus of a nearby university, brings twenty of his friends to the restaurant to celebrate a football victory one afternoon. Gerald orders four rounds of drinks, and the bill is nearly $600. When he learns that Mickey has failed to renew his bartender’s license, Gerald refuses to pay, claiming that the contract is unenforceable. Discuss whether Gerald is correct.