Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

1. Carefully READ the case excerpt listed on the next page.
   
   2.    Next, CONSIDER the issues presented in the Court’s opinion.  
   
   3.    Then, RESEARCH the law relevant to these issues in your textbook and/or online, at the sites provided.
   
   4.    Finally, ANSWER the numbered Questions.  
   (You should be able to answer all of the Questions presented in less than two typewritten pages.)
   
   RESEARCH AND WRITING PROCESS
   
   1.    READ the excerpt of Mathias v. Accor Economy Lodging, Inc., 347 F.3d 672 (7th Cir. 2003), which is attached separately to the class Moodle site.  Also READ the reference materials on judicial interpretation in your Beatty Text, as referenced below.
   
   2.    CONSIDER the following facts discussed in the 7th Circuit Court’s opinion.
   
               a.    Plaintiffs Burl and Desire Mathias (the “Mathiases”) sued Defendant Accor Economy Lodging, Inc. (“Accor” or “Defendant”) after they were bitten by bedbugs when they stayed at a Motel 6, owned and operated by Accor, in Downtown Chicago in November, 2000. 
   
               b.    Previously, in 1998, EcoLab, an extermination service that the motel used, had discovered bedbugs in several of the motel’s rooms.  EcoLab recommended that it be hired to spray every room in the motel, for the low fee of $500.  The motel’s management refused. 
   
               c.    In 1999, motel management again discovered bedbugs in one room, and management asked EcoLab to spray that room.  Motel management tried to negotiate a free “building sweep” for bedbugs, but EcoLab refused.  
   
               d.    At trial, the motel’s manager testified that she “started noticing that there were refunds being given by my desk clerks and reports coming back from the guests that there were ticks in the rooms and bugs in the rooms that were biting.”  Also, she testified that she had looked in some of the rooms and discovered bedbugs. One guest was moved four times after being bitten by insects while asleep and discovering insects in the first three rooms.
           
               e.    At trial, the motel’s manager testified because of the number of incidents of guests being bitten and demanding refunds, she recommended to her district manager at Accor that the motel be closed while every room was sprayed, but Accor’s management refused her recommendation.  
   
               f.    By July, 2000, the motel’s management was acknowledging to EcoLab that the hotel had “a major problem with bedbugs,” desk clerks were instructed to call them “ticks,” and many of the hotel’s rooms were placed on “Do not rent, bugs in room” status.
   
               g.    Hotel employees knowingly had placed the Mathiases in one of these infested rooms on “don’t rent” status, and, in fact, many of the rooms on this status were rented to guests.  Guests were charged full rates for these infested rooms.  
   
               h.    Despite Accor’s claim that its conduct, at worst, was negligence (with the Mathiases’ injuries caused by neglect and oversight, rather than by deliberate conduct), based on this evidence and testimony at trial, the jury awarded each of the Mathiases only $5,000 in compensatory damages but also $186,000 in punitive damages.  
   
     3.    RESEARCH the relevant law:
   
   a.    In general, torts (civil wrongs, but not breach of contract) are covered extensively in Chapter 6 (“Intentional Torts and Business Torts”), pages 130 – 155 of the Beatty Text and in Chapter 7 (“Negligence and Strict Liability”), pages 156 – 177 of the Beatty Text. 
   
   b.    Compensatory damages are discussed on pages 138 – 140 of the Beatty Text and as part of the discussion on negligence on pages 166 – 167 of the Beatty Text. 
   
   c.    Punitive damages are discussed on pages 140 – 142 of the Beatty Text. 
   
   d.    You may wish to take a more detailed look at these issues online, at one or more free online legal research sites.  
   
       One free legal research site is http://www.findlaw.com, which should allow you access to a wealth of legal information after a quick, free registration.  
   
       For example, you can find current law on negligence by clicking on the “Accidents and Injuries” link in the “Learn About the Law” column running down the middle of the FindLaw homepage, which takes you to the “Accidents and Injuries page (specifically, http://injury.findlaw.com). From there, click on the “Accident & Injury Law” link near the top center of the webpage, (taking you to http://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law.html). From the “Accident & Injury Law” page, you can click either on the “Negligence” link near the center of this webpage OR on the “Negligence” link under the “Accident & Injury Law” column on the right hand side of this webpage (either one takes you to http://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/negligence.html online).
   
       From there, you can choose a number of different articles discussing subtopics of negligence, such as a “Negligence Overview” (specifically at http://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/negligence-background.html) or the “Elements of a Negligence Case” (specifically at  http://images. findlaw.com/optimost/accident-injury-law/elements-of-a-negligence-case-2.html), containing a brief discussion of “Damages,” with a glossary link. 
   
       For less obvious topics/links, a good place to start is the “Search FindLaw” link at the top of the home page or any of the topic webpages.  This search feature can be frustrating (as it is for “punitive damages”), because it frequently leads to basic glossary-type definitions and not much else.  However, on some pages, clicking on the definition or on one of the links below the definition will lead to a more substantive (and useful) discussion.  
   
       For example, typing in “recklessness” as a topic in the “Search FindLaw” box, yields a list of links, including one for a basic “Recklessness – Findlaw” article (located online at http://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/recklessness.html) that provides a good discussion of recklessness torts and damages for them).
   
     3.    RESEARCH – (Continued)
   
       A second fine, wide-ranging legal library/database is the Legal Information Institute (LII), located at http://www.law.cornell.edu online.  The “Search all of LII…” feature, in the upper right-hand corner of LII’s home page, is not that helpful.  
   
       So instead, click either on the “Wex legal encyclopedia” link in the “Legal Resources” section, near the center of the page, which takes you to the “Wex” page (at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex online) OR on the “More…” listing under the drop down list from the “LEGAL ENCYCLOPEDIA” link at the top of that page, which takes you to the “Wex Articles” page (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/wex_artcles, (which, for clarity’s sake, ends with “wex_articles”).
   
       If you click on “Browse” link near the top of the “Wex” webpage (first of the two choices, above), you will be taken to the comprehensive list of Wex topics/links page (at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/all online).  From there, you may click on a letter link at the top of the page (because the topics/links are organized alphabetically).  
   
       For example, by clicking on the letter “P,” you bring up all topics/links beginning with that letter (still online at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/all), including “Punitive Damages” (scrolling way down the page).  Click on the “Punitive Damages” topic/link, taking you to a webpage (online at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/punitive_damages – specifically, for clarity’s sake, “punitive_damages” online) that contains a brief definition and links to leading U.S. Supreme Court cases on the subject.
   
       If you click through to the “Wex Articles” page (second of the two choices, above), you will find a selected list of short Wex articles, which you may browse, depending on your interests, such as “Negligence” (at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/negligence online).
   
       Yet another online resource, The Free Dictionary (located at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ online), through the “TheFreeDictionary” button and the “Search” box (type in “punitive damages”) at the top of its homepage, offers a definition (online at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ punitive+damages) and a “Legal Dictionary” tab (in light blue near the top of the definition page).  Clicking on that tab (while on the “Dictionary/Thesaurus” definition page for “punitive damages”) leads to an extremely useful descriptive history of the development of punitive damages and a discussion of their merits and pitfalls (online at http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ punitive+damages).
   
   
       CAUTION:  General “Google” or “Bing” or “Yahoo!” searches for legal terms frequently lead to advertising (“Need a Lawyer”) or attorney’s opinions or articles advocating political/legislative action.  You must sort through them carefully to determine their validity, accuracy, and efficacy.