Question

CARDWARE is growing by leaps and bounds. It has now opened 10 new stores nationwide under the name “The Sporty One.” It has been agreed by the Board of Directors at CARDWARE Inc. that each store shall have a general manager and assistant manager who both were to act as sales persons and one additional sales person. The slogan the store advertises its sports ware with is “You don’t have to be an athlete to look and feel like one.” The current sports ware that “The Sporty One” carries shows a clothing distribution of 60% for females and 40% of its line is for males. However, it would eventually like for it to be a 50/50 distribution. The Cardigans research has demonstrated that the trend has been more female than male shoppers. Further, following the marketing theory of many high end clothing stores, CARDWARE prefers slender, young employees to work for it, so that the clothing line can keep with the image of being sporty.

Petunia Rotunda, a middle aged, slightly plump woman saw an ad online for a salesperson for The Sporty One and applied for the position. The ad read as follows:

WANTED: Sales person experienced in retail sales or marketing preferred, energetic, youthful, athletic, and able to “sport” the clothing lines of The Sporty One with style. The Sporty One is a division of CARDWARE Inc. and proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Petunia has had 5 years of retail experience working in a garden shop that did have some flannel shirts and aprons as well as gardening gloves for sale. Noah Dahl, a college graduate in marketing also saw the ad and applied for the salesperson position at The Sporty One. Noah, a slender racquetball player has not had any retail experience but has had customer service experience for an online gaming company.

After interviewing both applicants, CARDWARE’s General Manager, Chloe, one of the cousins of the Cardigan clan has decided to hire Noah. Petunia was outraged claiming that she should have been hired and that she has been discriminated against based on her age. CARDWARE contends that Noah was more qualified as per the advertisement as well as company image and future plans for the company; age had nothing to do with it.

Noah began work the following week. Still angry, Petunia visited The Sporty One. She began to harass Noah to the point where other customers started to leave the store. Having had enough insults, Noah grabbed Petunia by the arm and shoved her towards the door. She stumbled and ran into one of the clothing racks and thereafter knocked over 92-year-old Hetty Whitestone who was passing by the mall store. Hetty suffered a concussion and died.

Using the above facts given, please label with headings and discuss the following in this order:

PART I:

• Did CARDWARE have genuine BFOQs (Bona Fide Occupational Job Qualifications) in its ad?
• Do not forget to review the company’s slogan as given in the above facts.
• Be sure to discuss Petunia’s point of view as well as CARDWARE’s position and defenses.
• Use legal authority to support your position as well.

PART II:

• If Petunia brings a lawsuit based on negligence against CARDWARE and The Sporty One, will CARDWARE be responsible for Noah’s behavior? If so, under what theory?
• What defenses might CARDWARE assert?
• If Hetty Whitestone’s estate claims that CARDWARE should be responsible for Hetty’s death, will it?
• What defenses might CARDWARE utilize?

Summary

This question belongs to business law and discusses about legal issues of a person in a company hiring process and events that occurred as given the case study.   

Total word count: 840

 

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