You own a small business called Green Coffee, a small coffee shop in Boston. Your coffee supplier, Java Distributors, is required under a written contract with you to deliver 500 pounds of coffee per week to the shop. The deliveries are to be made each Monday morning.
(A) When you arrive at work on Monday, you get a call from Java Distributors, who tells you that the week's coffee cannot be delivered until Tuesday afternoon. You believe this is a clear breach of your contract with Java Distributors. What should you do? Fully discuss all of your options, and choose the one that is best for your business.
(B) Your day is only beginning. In addition to your coffee not being delivered, you have a decision to make about buying new tables for your coffee shop. You have narrowed it down to 2 choices: (1) A local artist who has won several awards for her stained glass artwork has designed tables with stained glass tops. They are among the most beautiful you have ever seen. Your only hesitation is that they are breakable if treated harshly. (2) The other choice is tables with stainless steel tops. They are not very beautiful, but are also unbreakable. Which tables will you choose? Fully explain your choice.
(C) You have recently added a delivery service. Customers can place orders by telephone, and the coffee is delivered by another one of your employees, Joe, who is 19 years old. This afternoon, Joe was dispatched to deliver coffee. After the delivery, he was returning to the shop and failed to stop at a stop sign because he was texting on his phone. He ran over a man in the crosswalk who suffered two broken legs. The man has threatened to sue you (not Joe). What is the likelihood that you will have to pay for the man's injuries? Explain your answer.
(D) Also, you have recently hired 3 new employees, all of whom are 17 years old. You have trained them how to make a special, secret blend of coffee. You are worried that if they decide to quit, they will get a job with a competitor coffee shop and tell their new boss about your secret coffee formula. So, you decide to make each of them sign a written contract in which they agree never to disclose the secret formula to a competitor. If one of them breaches the contract by disclosing the secret to a competitor, can you bring a lawsuit against the former employee? If so, what remedy would you seek from the court?
(E) Finally, you decide that you need to hire a new employee. Five people apply for the job. All of them are equally qualified for the position. Three are African-American women, one is a Mexican-American man, and one is a white man. Which would you hire? Explain how you made your decision.