1. Apex gave Marcie an unemployment handbook stating that (1) she was an at-will employee, (2) the handbook did not create any contractual rights, and (3) employees who were fired had the right to a termination hearing. The company fired Marcie, claiming that she had falsified delivery records. She said that Apex was retaliating against her because she had complained of sexual harassment. Apex refused her request for a termination hearing. Did the employee handbook create a contract guaranteeing Marcie a hearing? Argument for Apex: The handbook could not have been clearer – it did not create a contract. Marcie is an employee at will and is not entitled to a hearing. Argument for Marcie: Apex intended that employees would rely on the handbook. The company used promises of a hearing to attract and retain good employees. Marcie was entitled to a hearing. 2. Triec, Inc., is a small electrical contracting company in Springfield, Ohio, owned by its executives Yeazell, Jones, and Heaton. Employees contacted the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which began an organizing drive, and 6 of the 11 employees in the bargaining unit signed authorization cards. The company declined to recognize the union, which petitioned the NLRB to schedule an election. The company then granted several new benefits for all workers, including higher wages, paid vacations, and other measures. When the election was held, only 2 of the 11 bargaining unit members voted for the union. Did the company violate the NLRA? 3. Sally is sent home from school with the chicken pox. Her father takes her to a pediatrician who says that she will be fine in about a week and in the meantime just needs bed rest and plenty of fluids. Is Sally’s father entitled to leave under the FMLA to care for Sally? 4. Catherine Wagenseller was a nurse at Scottsdale memorial Hospital and an employee at will. While on a camping trip with other nurses, Wagenseller refused to join in a parody of the song, “Moon River,” which concluded with members of the group “mooning” the audience. Her supervisor seemed upset by her refusal. Prior to the trip, Wagenseller had received consistently favorable performance evaluations. Six months after the outing, Wagenseller was fired. She contends it was because she had not mooned. Is illegal for the hospital to fire Wagenseller for this reason? 5. Noelle was the principal of a charter school and an employee at will The head administrator imposed a rule requiring cafeteria workers to stamp the hands of children who did not have sufficient funds in their lunch accounts. Some of these children were entitled to free lunches, others needed to ask their parents to replenish their accounts. Noelle directed the cafeteria workers to stop this humiliating practice. The administrator fired her. Does Noelle have a valid claim for wrongful termination?
> Laura and Bruce Trethewey hired Basement Waterproofing Nationwide, Inc., to waterproof the walls in their basement for a fee of $2,500. BWNI’s contract stated: “BWNI will service any seepage in the areas waterproofed at no additional cost to the customer
> ETHICS Wayne and Arlene Selden invested in Competition Aircraft, a fraudulent company that pretended to sell airplanes. After the company went bankrupt, the Seldens sought to recover from accountant William Burnett. He had recommended the investment to s
> 1. After acquiring the Schick brand name and electric shaver assets, North American Phillips controlled 55 percent of the electric shaver industry in the United States. Remington, a competitor, claimed that the acquisition of such a large market share wa
> 1. Fluor, an engineering and construction company, was awarded a $1 billion project to build a coal gasification plant in South Africa. Fluor signed an agreement with a South African client that prohibited them both from announcing the agreement until Ma
> 1. To finance her education at DeVry Institute of Technology, Lydia borrowed $20,000 from a private lender. After graduation, she could not find a job in her field, so she went to work as a clerk at an annual salary of $12,500. Lydia and her daughter liv
> 1. Asher and Stephen formed a corporation named “Ampersand” to produce plays. Both men were employed by the corporation. Stephen decided to write Philly’s Beat, focusing on the history of rock and roll in Philadelphia. As the play went into production, h
> 1. Michael incorporated Erin Homes, Inc., to manufacture mobile homes. He issued himself a stock certificate for 100 shares for which he made no payment. He and his wife served as officers and directors of the organization, but, during the eight years of
> 1. After reviewing Color-Dyne’s audited financial statements, the plaintiffs provided materials to the company on credit. These financial statements showed that Color-Dyne owned $2 million in inventory. The audit failed to reveal, however, that various b
> 1. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) awarded the Perini Corp. a large contract to rehabilitate a section of railroad tracks. The work involved undercutting the existing track, removing the ballast and foundation, rebuilding the track, and di
> 1. Give an example of three types of contracts that should definitely be in writing, and one that probably does not need to be. 2. List three provisions in a contract that would be material, and three that would not be. 3. Blair Co.’s top officers aske
> 1. Intercontinental Metals Corp. (IMC) contracted with the accounting firm of Cherry, Bekaert & Holland to perform an audit. Cherry issued its opinion about IMC, giving all copies of its report directly to the company. IMC later permitted Dun & Bradstree
> 1. Richard Griffin and three other men owned a grain company called Bearhouse, Inc., which needed to borrow money. First National Bank was willing to loan $490,000, but insisted that the four men sign personal guaranties on the loan, committing themselve
> 1. An actor, exhausted after his 10-hour workweek, agrees to buy a briefcase full of cocaine from Lewis for $12,000. John and the actor have a ______________ contract. A. valid B. unenforceable C. voidable D. void 2. Carol says, “Pam, you’re my best fr
> 1. On television and in magazines, Maurine and Mamie Mason saw numerous advertisements for Chrysler Fifth Avenue automobiles. The ads described the car as “luxurious,” “quality-engineered,” and “reliable.” When they went to inspect the car, the salesman
> 1. Interactive Data Corp. hired Daniel Foley as an assistant product manager at a starting salary of $18,500. Over the next six years Interactive steadily promoted Foley until he became Los Angeles branch manager at a salary of $56,116. Interactive’s off
> What are the penalties if Artist breaches the movie contract? Are these reasonable? Too heavy? Too light?
> What are the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a lawyer to draft or review a contract?
> 1. Chitika, Inc. provided online tracking tools on websites. When consumers clicked the “opt-out” button, indicating that they did not want to be tracked, they were not – for ten days. After that, the software would resume tracking. Is there a legal prob
> 1. At approximately 7:50 pm bells at the train station rang and red lights flashed, signaling an express train’s approach. David Harris walked onto the tracks, ignoring a yellow line painted on the platform instructing people to stand back. Two men shout
> Walgreens operated a pharmacy in the Sara Creek mall. As part of this long-term lease, Sara Creek agreed not to lease mall space to another pharmacy. During an economic recession, Sara Creek’s largest tenant left and the landlord informed Walgreens that
> PepsiCo entered into a contract to sell its corporate jet to Klein for $4.6 million. Before the deal closed, the plane was sent to pick up PepsiCo’s chairman of the board, who was stranded at Dulles airport. The chairman then decided that the company sho
> 1. You are a vice-president in charge of personnel at a large manufacturing company. In-house detectives inform you that Gates, an employee, was seen stealing valuable computer equipment. Gates denies the theft, but you believe the detectives and fire hi
> 1. You Be the Judge: WRITING PROBLEM. An undercover drug informant learned from a mutual friend that Philip Friedman “knew where to get marijuana.” The informant asked Friedman three times to get him some marijuana, and Friedman agreed after the third re
> 1. The following agency is charged with the regulation of electronic communications: A. National Security Agency B. Federal Trade Commission C. Federal Communications Commission D. None of the above 2. Because Blaine Blogger reviews movies on his blog,
> Krug International, an Ohio corporation, had a contract with Iraqi Airways to build aeromedical equipment for training pilots. Krug then contracted for Power Engineering, an Iowa corporation, to build the specialized gearbox to be used in the training eq
> Evans built a house for Sandra Dyer, but the house had some problems. The garage ceiling was too low. Load-bearing beams in the “great room” cracked and appeared to be steadily weakening. The patio did not drain properly. Pipes froze. Evans wanted the mo
> 1. You plan to open a store in Chicago, specializing in rugs imported from Turkey. You will work with a native Turk who will purchase and ship the rugs to your store. You are wise enough to insist on a contract establishing the rights and obligations of
> Jacobs Builders entered into a contract with Kent to build him a home. The agreement stated that Jacobs would use only certain brand-name materials. Upon completion of the home, Kent discovered that Jacobs had installed high-quality, but not brand-name,
> Westinghouse sold uranium in long-term contracts at fixed prices, betting that market prices would be stable or fall (as they had been). But this was a bad bet: Uranium prices skyrocketed as a result of a cartel. Faced with large losses if it had to fulf
> 1. In the landmark 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court examined a Connecticut statute that made it a crime for any person to use contraception. The majority declared the law an unconstitutional violation of the right of privacy. Justi
> 1. In 1988, terrorists bombed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all passengers on board. Congress sought to remedy security shortcomings by passing the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990, which, among other things, ordered the Fe
> 1. If your grandparents were to die leaving a large estate and all of their children were also dead, would you prefer a per stirpes or per capita distribution? 2. You Be the Judge: WRITING PROBLEM Linda and Eddie had two children before they were divorce
> Nationwide Discount Furniture hired Rampart Security to install an alarm in its warehouse. A fire would set off an alarm in Rampart’s office, and the security company was then supposed to notify Nationwide immediately. A fire did break out, but Rampart a
> A century and a half ago an English judge stated: “All painters do not paint portraits like Sir Joshua Reynolds, nor landscapes like Claude Lorraine, nor do all writers write dramas like Shakespeare or fiction like Dickens. Rare genius and extraordinary
> 1. Two cars, driven by Fred and Barney, collide. At trial, the jury determines that the accident was 90% Fred's fault and 10% Barney's fault. Barney's losses total $100,000. If he lives in a state that uses contributory negligence, Barney will recover __
> 1. While in college, David invented a new and useful machine to make macaroni and cheese (he called it the “Mac ‘n’ Cheeser”). It was like nothing on the market, but David did not apply for a patent. At that time, he offered to sell his invention to seve
> 1. Tariq Ahmad decided to dispose of some of his laboratory’s hazardous chemicals by shipping them to his home in Pakistan. He sent the chemicals to Castelazo (a company in the United States) to prepare the materials for shipment. Ahmad did not tell the
> A disc jockey named Z-Trip made a remix of a Beastie Boys song with the hip-hop group’s permission. Monster Energy (ME), an energy drink company, wanted to use the remix as part of a video promotion. Monster Energy sent an email asking Z-Trip to approve
> Mast Industries and Bazak International were two textile firms. Mast orally offered to sell certain textiles to Bazak for $103,000. Mast promised to send documents confirming the agreement, but never did. Finally, Bazak sent a memorandum to Mast confirmi
> ETHICS Jacob Deutsch owned commercial property. He orally agreed to rent it for six years to Budget Rent-A-Car. Budget took possession, began paying monthly rent, and over a period of several months expended about $6,000 in upgrading the property. Deutsc
> When Steven Simkin and Laura Blank divorced in 2006, they agreed to split their $13.5 million fortune evenly. Two years later, it became evident that Simkin had a problem: his half was invested in Bernard Madoff’s giant Ponzi scheme and he lost millions.
> 1. Pfizer Inc. paid $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal charges alleging that it had illegally marketed 13 of its most important drugs. This settlement made history, but not in a good way. It was both the largest criminal fine and the largest settl
> Paula was alone, pregnant, and confused. She needed help and support, which she found at Methodist Mission Home of Texas. In the days following her child’s birth, representatives of Methodist Mission forcefully told her that she had no moral or legal rig
> Ball-Mart, a baseball card store, had a 1968 Nolan Ryan rookie card in almost perfect condition for sale. Any baseball collector would have known that the card was worth at least $1,000; the published monthly price guide listed its market value at $1,200
> 1. Arthur, John, and George formed a partnership to drill and maintain cesspools for two years. After less than two months, John and George sent a letter to Arthur informing him that they were dissolving the partnership. Arthur sued the two other men, as
> 1. Jane writes an article for a newspaper reporting that Ann was arrested for stealing a car. The story is entirely false. Ann is not a public figure. Which of the following torts has Jane committed? A. Ordinary slander B. Slander per se C. Libel D. None
> 1. Alan Dershowitz, a law professor famous for his prominent clients, joined with other lawyers to open a kosher delicatessen, Maven’s Court. Dershowitz met with greater success at the bar than in the kitchen—the deli failed after barely a year in busine
> 1. An employer placed a job advertisement for security guards, specifying that applicants had to be United States citizens. It also required applicants to present a social security card. Was this ad legal? 2. In the 2008 recession, Roger lost his job as
> 1. A Saudi Arabian government-run hospital hired American Scott Nelson to be an engineer. The parties signed the employment agreement in the United States. On the job, Nelson reported that the hospital had significant safety defects. For this, he was arr
> 1. An elementary school custodian hit a child who wrote graffiti on the wall. Is the school district liable for this intentional tort by its employee? 2. What if the custodian hit one of the schoolchildren for calling him a name? Is the school district l
> Richard and Michelle Kommit traveled to New Jersey to have fun in the casinos. While in Atlantic City, they used their MasterCard to withdraw cash from an ATM conveniently located in the “pit” - the gambling area of a casino. They ran up debts of $5,500
> 1. One of Doris’s job responsibilities at Winkie, Inc. was preparing company checks for the president, Willie, to sign. Using Winkie’s check-signing machine, Doris forged $150,000 of checks on her employer’s account. Willie did not (1) look at the sequen
> 1. Kay signed a promissory note for $220,000 that was payable to Investments, Inc. The company then indorsed the note over to its lawyers to pay past and future legal fees. Were the lawyers holders in due course? 2. Shelby wrote the following check to Da
> 1. Eugene Ables ran an excavation company. He borrowed $500,000 from the Highland Park State Bank. Ables signed a note promising to repay the money and an agreement giving Highland a security interest in all of his equipment, including after-acquired equ
> 1. Mastercraft Boat manufactured boats and often used instrument panels and electrical systems assembled and/or manufactured by Ace Industries. Typically, Ace would order electrical instruments and other parts and assemble them to specifications that Mas
> 1. In a criminal case, which statement is true? A. The prosecution must prove the government’s case by a preponderance of the evidence. B. The criminal defendant is entitled to a lawyer even if she cannot afford to pay for it herself. C. The police are
> 1. Franklin Miller operated Miller Seed Co. in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. He bought, processed, and sold fescue seed, which is used for growing pasture and fodder grass. Farmers brought seed to Miller who would normally clean, bag, and store it. In some cases,
> Each time employees at BizCorp enter their work computers, the following alert appears: “You are attempting to access the BizCorp network. By logging in, you agree to BizCorp’s Computer Usage Policy and certify that your use of this computer is strictly
> Ryan Leslie, a rapper, was distraught when someone stole his computer and external hard drive because they contained some music he was writing. In an effort to retrieve his items, he created a series of YouTube videos, news articles, and social media pos
> 1. Lewis signed a contract for the rights to all timber located on Nine Mile Mine. He agreed to pay $70 per thousand board feet ($70/mbf). As he began work, Nine Mile became convinced that Lewis lacked sufficient equipment to do the job well and forbade
> 1. Commercial Union Insurance Co. (CU) insured Redux, Ltd. The contract made CU liable for fire damage, but stated that the insurer would not pay for harm caused by criminal acts of any Redux employees. Fire destroyed Redux’s property. CU claimed that th
> The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is the biggest shopping day of the year. One major retailer advertised a “Black Friday only” laptop for $150. On Thanksgiving night, hundreds of people waited for the store to open to take advantage of t
> Case law tells us that a course syllabus is not a binding contract—but how about your school’s honor code? Under what conditions could an honor code be a contract?
> Some laws give consumers the right to cancel certain contracts for any reason within a short period of time after entering into them. For example, consumers in the European Union can return anything purchased online for any reason or no reason at all. Co
> 1. Guyan Machinery, a West Virginia manufacturing corporation, hired Albert Voorhees as a salesman and required him to sign a contract stating that if he left Guyan he would not work for a competing corporation anywhere within 250 miles of West Virginia
> 1. American Bakeries had a fleet of over 3,000 delivery trucks. Because of the increasing cost of gasoline, the company was interested in converting the trucks to propane fuel. It signed a requirements contract with Empire Gas, in which Empire would conv
> When Steven was killed in an automobile accident, he left his wife, Debra a life insurance policy for $60,000. She decided to move from Bunkie to Sulphur, Louisiana. Debra executed a document authorizing her mother-in-law, Helen, to sign checks on Debra’
> 1. A bill is vetoed by ___. A. the Speaker of the House B .a majority of the voting members of the Senate C. the President D. the Supreme Court 2. If a bill is vetoed, it may still become law if it is approved by ___. A. Two-thirds of the Supreme Court B
> What are some patterns that could be found using diagnostic analysis? Between which types of variables?
> What does a Z-score greater than three (or minus three) suggest? How is that useful in finding extreme values? What type of analysis should we do when we find extreme or outlier values?
> One of the benefits of Data Analytics is the ability to see and test the full population. In that case, why is sampling (even monetary sampling) still used, and how is it useful?
> One type of descriptive analytics is age analysis. Why are auditors particularly interested in the aging of accounts receivable and accounts payable? How does this analysis help evaluate management judgment on collectability of receivables and potential
> Implementing continuous auditing procedures is similar to automating an audit plan with the additional step of scheduling the automated procedures to match the timing and frequency of the data being evaluated and the notification to the auditor when exce
> What approach should a company make if its continuous audit system has too many alarms that are false positives? How would that approach change if there are too many missed abnormal events (such as false negatives)?
> Simple to complex Data Analytics can be applied to a client’s data during the planning stage of the audit to identify which areas the auditor should focus on. Which types of techniques or tests might be used in this stage?
> Who developed the audit data standards? In your opinion, why is it the right group to develop and maintain them rather than, say, the Big 4 firms or a small practitioner?
> Consider Exhibit 5-3. Looking at the audit data standards order-to-cash process, what function is there for the AR Adjustments transaction table—that is, adjustments to the Accounts Receivable? Why is this an audit data standard, and why is it important
> What are the advantages of the use of homogeneous systems? Would a merger target be more attractive if it used a similar financial reporting system as the potential parent company?
> Regarding the data request form, why do you think it is important to the database administrator to know the purpose of the request? What would be the importance of the “To be used in” and “intended audience” fields?
> In your opinion, is the primary reason that analysts use inappropriate scales for their charts primarily due to an error related to naiveté (or ineffective training), or are the inappropriate scales used so the analyst can sway the audience one way or th
> Datavizcatalogue.com lists seven types of maps in its listing of charts. Which one would you use to assess geographic customer concentration by number? How could you show if some customers buy more than other customers on such a map? Would you use the sa
> The Big 4 accounting firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC) dominate the audit and tax market in the United States. What chart would you use to show which accounting firm dominates in each state in terms of audit revenues? Any there other interesting ways y
> According to Exhibit 4-8, which is the best chart for static composition of a data item of the Accounts Receivable balance at the end of the year? Which is best for showing a change in composition of Accounts Receivable over two or more periods?
> According to Exhibit 4-8, which is the best chart for comparisons of earnings per share over many periods? How about for only a few periods?
> Evaluate the use of multiple colors in the graphic associated with the opening vignette regarding the 2016 presidential election. Would you consider its use effective or ineffective? Why? Can you think of a better way to communicate the extent to which p
> Why was the graphic associated with the opening vignette regarding the 2016 presidential election an effective way to communicate the voter outcome for 50 states? What else could have been used to communicate this, and would it have been more or less eff
> Name three accounts that it would be appropriate and interesting to apply Benford’s Law in auditing those accounts? Why would an auditor choose those three accounts? When would a departure from Benford’s Law encourage the auditor to investigate further
> How could XBRL be used by an investor to do an analysis of the industry’s inventory turnover?
> Why would the use of data reduction be useful to highlight related party transactions (e.g., CEO has her own separate company that the main company does business with)?
> In the ETL process, when an analyst is completing the data request form, there are a number of fields that the analyst is required to complete. Why do you think it is important for the analyst to indicate the frequency of the report? How do you think tha
> How might clustering be used to explain customers that owe us money (accounts receivable)?
> An auditor is trying to figure out if the goodwill its client recognized when it purchased a factory has become impaired. What characteristics might be used to help establish a model predicting goodwill impairment?
> An auditor is trying to figure out if the inventory at an electronics store chain is obsolete. What characteristics might be used to help establish a model predicting inventory obsolescence?
> Related party transactions involve people who have close ties to an organization, such as board members. Assume an accounting manager decides that fuzzy matching would be a useful technique to find undisclosed related party transactions. What data would
> Use the College Scorecard data to determine if different regions of the country have significantly different costs of attendance (same as Problem 6 above) and fill out a data request form in order to extract the appropriate data. Use the template from th
> Which attributes from the College Scorecard data would you need to determine if different regions of the country have significantly different costs of attendance?
> Which attributes from the College Scorecard data would you need to compare the percentage of students who receive federal loans at universities above and below the median cost of attendance across all institutions (public, private non-profit, or private
> Which attributes from the College Scorecard data would you need to compare completion rate across types of institutions (public, private non-profit, or private for-profit)?
> Which attributes from the College Scorecard data would you need to compare levels of diversity across types of institutions (public, private non-profit, or private for-profit)?
> Which attributes from the College Scorecard data would you need to compare SAT scores across types of institutions (public, private non-profit, or private for-profit)?
