Assignment task:
Can you please assist with the questions below and provide the necessary references used
Catori has worked for lawyer Larry for the last five years in his home office. Catori does everything for Larry - receptionist, bookkeeper, secretary, paralegal, coffee girl, and sometimes even taking his laundry to the cleaners. Catori is smart and very good with people, and indispensable to Larry's business. He sometimes took her to networking functions where she mixed and mingled with potential clients and talked up her boss. Since the economic downturn, some of Larry's clients have gone out of business and Larry's law practice has also suffered. Larry has told Catori that if business does not pick up, he would have to reduce her work hours. Catori had taken some online courses in accounting and in her spare time she has been studying the books to see how she can make the numbers look better. She inflated some billings and expensed some of Larry's personal bills through the firm accounts.
Larry and Catori began attending more functions to meet new potential clients. Catori finds herself drinking and hobnobbing harder than ever before, sometimes staying on at the events even after Larry has left. One raw rainy evening just before Christmas, after several drinks, Catori found herself one of the last to leave a party at the golf club. As she was getting her coat, she found herself in the empty cloak room where Chirag, one of the potential clients she was talking to during the evening, told her that she looked ravishing and offered to help her with her coat. What transpired afterwards would be described as inappropriate touching and some kissing. Catori broke loose and ran to her car. Fumbling for her keys, she did not realize that she had dropped her smartphone in the parking lot. Understandably upset, she drove away hastily and, coming around a turn too fast down the dark country road, crashed into a guardrail and passed out. A few minutes later, Meaghan and her one-year old son, Sam, were driving to pick up her husband (yes, that same two-timing Chirag) from the Christmas party. Coming around the same turn, Meaghan did not see Catori's stalled car and slammed into it. Sam was not properly secured to his car seat and was seriously injured. In all the turmoil over the past few weeks, Catori had forgotten to renew her car insurance.
1. Catori has taken advantage of her fiduciary position by cooking books to help secure her job. Catori owes a duty to Larry, but what duty? Are we talking about the duty of care? If so, could Catori be characterized and thus be blamed as an accountant? Why not?
Can you think of any relevant case law to support your argument for all four questions?
2. Meaghan's potential liability for the car accident was discussed. How might contributory negligence impact her potential liability, and what steps could she take to defend herself in such a situation?
3. Please provide insights into how road laws and regulations are typically applied in such cases and their significance in determining liability?
4 As an employee, Catori in principle, has a duty not to disclose confidential information to others or to use it for her own interests. In this case, can she be held negligently responsible for losing her mobile, which contains confidential information, and thus causing damage to others? More importantly, why?