Getting ready for HH season
Yes indeed, it’s that time of year again, but fret not! Ultra Vires is once again here to provide you with supplemental questions that you can try on your own to get your feet wet before tackling your specific professor’s past questions. Don’t worry if you aren’t happy with your answers on your first try; you’ll get better over time, we promise!
Tort Law
Lora Laskin owns a library in the town of Falconer, the province of Flavelle. This library is exclusively for law students, who must present their fobs upon entry. Lora has been happily running this private library for over 50 years and happily welcomes the occasional stranger. However, recently there has been an upsurge of these unregistered people coming into the library, to the point where its regular visitors have complained.
Just last week, as Lora was leaving the library to run an errand, she was jostled by one such invader, Imas Nale. Imas rudely expressed that Lora should watch where she was going and gave her a light push as a warning. Then Imas proceeded to enter the library and settle herself down. Lora noted that Imas did not have a fob.
When Lora returned, the library was in an uproar. Apparently, someone had been causing a huge commotion: a flurry of organic chemistry textbooks, physics problem sets, and philosophy essays were being thrown around, and someone was sighing heavily over how hard their schoolwork was. To Lora’s chagrin, Imas was at the center of all the ruckus, sighing over the spread papers with a few more friends she had brought in with her, all without fobs.
Lora asked nicely for Imas to please take her work elsewhere, as she was distracting the hardworking students at the library from their studies. Again, Imas vehemently refused. Lora politely escorted Imas and her friends out one by one, but to no avail; as each left, two more came in to take their place. Finally, a law student enlisted the help of building security, who were able to bar the entrance to prevent re-entry, posting signs and using the PA system to ensure strict enforcement.
Assume the laws of Flavelle are congruent with those of Ontario. Please advise Lora on what tort actions she may have against Imas Nale.
Family Law
Helon Muskox is a world-renowned business owner who had many successful ventures in technology and scientific start-ups. In fact, Helon is so successful that she is one of Flavelle’s richest people, albeit with a somewhat nasty temper, with an estimated net worth of $2 million. Helon has been married to Tælor, another successful CEO, since 2002. The couple began their divorce proceedings in June 2021 and concluded them in February 2022. Helon paid an equalization payment of $1 million.
In March 2022, Helon acquired a large social media platform, Chipper, valued at $400,000. After Helon fired half its employees in March, Chipper’s net value dropped by half to $200,000 by May. Business experts had previously forecasted that this value would only continue to decrease under Helon’s leadership. However, Helon abdicated and brought in a new CEO in August to try and turn the trajectory around. Under the new leadership, Chipper has surpassed its previous peak value and is now valued at $800,000, and only continues to grow.
Tælor has come to you, a budding family law attorney, wondering if it is possible to share in Helon’s recent dramatic earnings. They did not have a domestic contract, and you can assume all of their other assets are negligible.
Please advise Tælor on how the courts might approach this analysis on the post-valuation date increase in the net family property.
