ESSAY
CRIMINAL LAW
PROF. COHEN
FALL, 2001
Sillycohen Valley (hereafter SV), a town in the state of Euphoria (just above New Mexico), was famous for its
wonderful food. Of particular interest to tourists were the great hot dogs manufactured on site, and sold at a
twenty four hour hot dog stand called Nathaniel's Famous Hot Dogs. Since both SV and the state of
Euphoria were very conscious of the rights of animals, the hot dogs contained no meat of any sort, but
instead were made from soy beans and were called soy dogs. Nathaniel Natural, the owner, was a vegetarian,
and the idea for the soy dogs had been Nathaniel's. To everyone's surprise, the soy dogs were delicious,
and, as a result, sold like crazy.
This, however, caused major problems for the other food establishments in SV. It was true that people came
from thousands of miles away to SV because of the food, but really it was because of the soy dogs (if you
make them, they will come, some had said). It was also true that they then stayed in one of the local motels
for at least several days, and wandered around the beautiful countryside during their stay, but most of the
other restaurants got very little business although their food was very good. One of the other restaurant
owners, Dave Dee, owner of Dave De Cook's Restaurant, decided he had to do something or he would be
financially ruined. He was in significant debt to Larry Lender, who had, in a conversation, emphatically told
Dave, "You've got to do something about this situation or I'm going to sue you for breach of our agreement."
Dave told Larry he understood, and would act. Dave had a significant history of mental illness, and got very
nervous thinking he'd be forced out of business. He decided he'd better do something. The first thing Dave
did was to send a letter to all the eight other restaurant owners, except Nathaniel, saying he intended to do
something about the situation, and that they all should just relax, and "enjoy the show". The names and
addresses of all of the eight were contained in the letter.
The second thing Dave did was to try to make some of the soy dogs taste bad. He hired an unemployed chef, by the name of "Chef Amy
Gwen" who had a criminal record and was an alcoholic besides, to go into Nathaniel's one night after closing, and put a
batch of bad soy mix into a vat then cooking. Dave knew, as a result of lots of publicity
given to Nathaniel's and its famous soy dogs, both what the recipes were and how the
process worked. So, it was very easy for him to inform Chef Amy Gwen as to how to
mix the product correctly. In order to make the batch taste bad, once it had been made up
into soy dogs, Dave used a product called "Dogoff," a liquid sold to keep pets from
chewing furniture since, although it had no odor, it had a bad taste. Dave never bothered
to read the label when he mixed the batch, but gave the bottle to Chef Amy Gwen in case
she should decide to put some more in the vat when she was mixing the bad soy with the
good soy.
Before Chef Amy Gwen went to Nathaniel's, she took several drinks to get her courage up, and when she
went into Nathaniel's she decided to read the label before she mixed everything together. The label on the Dogoff clearly said "poisonous if ingested
by humans" but she thought Dave must know what he's doing, so she mixed the Dave
material with the Nathaniel material in the vat, and left.
Several days later, after the material had cooked, been made into soy dogs, and
sold to the public, one of the people who ate several of the soy dogs, Victoria Victim, got
quite sick while driving to her home several hundred miles away. She lost consciousness
and her car careened across the road and was lit by another car, which happened to be
speeding along, killing Ms. Victim.
You are a clerk working for the local District Attorney, who has told you the
above facts and asked you to write a memo discussing what crimes, if any; and what
defenses, if any, are involved in the above fact pattern.