Hypothetical 4 [See White v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc.- (United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1993)]

Cybot Galactica, a mass producer of protocol droids is getting ready to promote their new model of droids based on the old 3P0 series designs. Knowing that their customers use the droids to interact with humans, Cybot Galactica attemps to show off how futuristic and interactive the new droids are by dressing them up as a human female. See advertisement below:

C3P0, now a celebrity from his association with the New Republic hero Luke Skywalker, sees this image and wishes to sue for violation of his property right of his identity. What result?

Erie R. Co. v Tompkins- US Supreme Court (1938)

Ponda Baba, an Aqualish smuggler, was peacefully enjoying a drink in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley, Tatooine one afternoon when a young Jedi approached him, and began to hassle the bartender Wuher, one of Ponda's friends, for a beer. Seeing that the Jedi had not paid for his drink, and knowing how upset Wuher got when droids entered the cantina, even briefly, Ponda decided to stick up for his friend, and had his partner, Dr. Cornelius Evasan translate his dislike for the arrogant Jedi. Suddenly, an older Jedi appeared and unprovokedly sliced off Ponda's arm with a lightsaber.

Under Tatooine case law (law created by court decisions, rather than by legislative statutes), Jedi were given a certain amount of leeway (to prevent unnecessary Imperial attention), and Ponda knew that any planetary court was likely to dismiss any claim he filed against his attackers.

Ponda therefore decided to file a claim in Tatooine's Imperial District Court based on diversity of citizenship (usually only Imperial issues are tried in Imperial courts, but planetary issues are allowed when, as in Ponda's case, both parties are from different planets and the amount of damages requested exceeds 75,000 credits. This is known as diversity of citizenship, and is meant to protect the non-planetary resident from bias in a planetary court).

When a planetary issue is tried in Imperial Court, the court is required to apply planetary law rather than Imperial law, in order to prevent plaintiffs from bringing suit in Imperial law just to escape unfavorable planetary law (this is known as "forum shopping"). However, at the time Ponda brought his suit against the Jedis, the Imperial court was only required to apply "written" planetary law, which included planetary statutes, but not planetary case law. Since there was no Tatooine statute prohibiting Jedi violence in cantinas, the Imperial court was free to decide the case based on Imperial common law (basically however they wanted), and awarded Ponda his requested damages.

The Jedi appealed the ruling, which was affirmed by the Imperial Appellate Court, and finally petitioned the Imperial Supreme Court. The Imperial Supreme Court reversed the decision, and held in favor of the Jedi. They reasoned that allowing Imperial courts to apply Imperial common law in cases with only planetary issues created a loophole to the prohibition of forum shopping. Under the law as it was, anyone (like Ponda) could use diversity of citizenship as a means of avoiding bringing suit in a planetary court. They pointed to an earlier case (Black & White AT-ATs v Brown & Yellow AT-ATs), where an AT-AT rental company actually moved to a different planet in order to meet the requirements of diversity of citizenship and avoid planetary law. Based on that negative precedent, the Imperial Supreme Court reversed, and held that Imperial courts were hereinafter required to apply both planetary statutes AND planetary case law when deciding diversity of citizenship cases.

Vocabulary of the Law: Desultory- (Used in United States v. Hamilton, United States District Court of the District of Columbia, 1960)

Desultory- Lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm. (Oxford English Dictionary)

(as used in the majority opinion)-

"[The defendant and the deceased] played several games of pool. They imbibed intoxicating beverages in the rear of the establishment, and they also carried on desultory conversations. There was an exchange of banter between the deceased and the defendant, which developed into an argument, and finally into an acrimonious quarrel..."
United States v. Hamilton (1960)

Ponda Baba and his close chum and drinking buddy Dr. Evazan were enjoying a relaxing afternoon in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley listening to the house band Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, carrying on desultory conversation and recanting of old stories with their fellow patrons. A young human pulled up to the bar and knocked Ponda Baba's drink over without apologizing, Ponda Baba recognized that a "party foul" had occurred and wished to point out to the young human, that knocking over drinks without apologizing wasn't just cool, it could be dangerous in certain contexts. At that point, Evazan took over and blew the whole thing way out of proportion, leading to a long and awkward trip between Ponda Baba and Evazan on the way to the medical droid station down the alleyway.

Hines v. Morrow- (Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Dallas, 1921)

Luke Skywalker returned to Dagobah to continue Jedi training under the tutelage of Master Yoda. Under the direction of his master, Luke proceeded to stand on his head and lift some large rocks into the air using the Force. Before completing the exercise, with the rocks still floating mid-air, Luke's hand that had prior to that time been severed in an unrelated intrafamily lightsaber duel, which was extended with a cybernetic hand, began to sink into the swamp mud. The hand went down into a hole at least 10 inches or 12 inches, filled with soft mud and water, and Luke's limb became securely fastened therein, and he was unable by his own efforts to extricate his said hand from said hole. As he was sinking, Luke, a young Padawan, not yet fully trained in the Jedi ways, became distressed and lost concentration, at which point the rocks he had been levitating began to fall toward him. In order to avoid the danger of being hit with large rocks, which danger was then imminent and certain, if he was unable to extricate his limb from said hole and said danger would have caused to him death or serious bodily injury, and, prompted thereby, he used the force to lift himself up into the branches of a Gnarltree located nearby and out of the path of the falling rocks. Thereby his hand and arm were pulled from the hole and in doing so a coil in a hanging vine that was dangling between him and the tree caught Luke's other arm. As Luke was flew through the air, the vine tightened around his arm and so mangled and lacerated the same that it became necessary to amputate his only non-cybernetic hand.

Luke sued Yoda for his injuries resulting from Yoda's negligent maintenance of the area used for training, specifically failure to repair the many slimy mudholes. (Yoda's response: "Mudhole?! Slimy?! My home this is!")

Yoda's defense relied on the assertion that the accident was too freakish to be foreseen, even by Yoda's power of Force vision.

The court found for Luke because the injuries were a result of Yoda's negligence, and the exact consequences of negligence do not have to be foreseen.

Contributed by Andrew Greenberg

Christensen v Swensen (Supreme Court of Utah- 1994)

Princess Leia, onboard the Tantive IV and anticipating the arrival of Darth Vader, employed her astromech droid R2D2 to deliver a frantic plea to the old Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was hiding on Tatooine.

R2D2, along with his befuddled BFF C3PO, crashed an escape pod onto Tatooine, and began to search for Obi-Wan. Unfortunately, they were quickly captured by Jawas and sold to Owen Lars. Before Owen could wipe their memories and subject them to an eternity of moisture farming, R2D2 was able to outwit the hapless Luke Skywalker and escape into the desert, desperate to complete his mission. However, Luke and C3PO followed him, and R2D2 unwittingly led them straight into a Tusken Raider ambush. After Obi-Wan mysteriously appeared and saved them, Luke (who had taken quite a tumble, and was additionally incensed by the murders of his aunt and uncle) pursued litigation against R2D2 for negligence. Knowing that as a droid, R2D2 would have very few assets, Luke attempted to hold Princess Leia, R2's employer/owner, vicariously liable for her droid's actions.

The lowest court on Tatooine held that an employer was vicariously liable when their employee's negligence occurred within the scope of their employment. Looking to an older case, they found that the test for scope was 3 pronged: The employee must be about the employer's business when the negligence occurs, it must occur within the hours and ordinary spatial boundaries of their employment, and the employee's conduct must be at least partially motivated by serving the employer's interest. The lowest court found, without a jury, that since Tatooine was not within the spatial boundaries of the Tantive IV, Leia was not vicariously liable for R2's negligence.

On appeal to the highest court on the planet, it was decided that vicarious liability is normally a jury issue, and is only decided by the court when there are no factual issues. They held that reasonable minds could differ (that is, there was a factual issue) as to all three criteria, including the spatial limitation. As an astromech, R2D2 was often employed far outside of the Tantive IV, which made the spatial boundaries of his employment hard to determine. The court held that a jury was required to determine the facts before liability was imposed on Leia, and remanded the case for further proceedings.

Dillon v. Twin State Gas & Electric Co.- (New Hampshire Supreme Court, 1932)

Master Chief Gunnery Officer Tenn Graneet was a Death Star Gunner on superlaser duty during the Battle of Yavin. Just as Luke Skywalker was completing his trench run, he slipped and fell back over the tiny railing on his platform as the Death Star's main superlaser was charging up in preparation to fire on Yavin IV. He was incinerated instantly by the beam, and his estate sued the Empire for his wrongful death. The Empire's advocates countered, stating that mere seconds later the Death Star would have been destroyed by Skywalker's torpedo, killing Graneet instantly. The Imperial Court agreed with the Empire, and lowered Graneet's damages to those few seconds of life lost between the charging of the superlaser and the destruction of the Death Star.

General Motors v Sanchez- (Supreme Court of Texas, 1999)

Young Luke Skywalker was training under Obi-Wan Kenobi on board the Millenium Falcon on their way to rescue Princess Leia from the Empire (she claimed they were her only hope). Obi-Wan was instructing Luke on lightsaber techniques, and as part of his training, had Luke read the holographic manual which described safety measures to be taken to reduce the risks involved with such a highly dangerous (and elegant) instrument, including the proper way to turn a lightsaber on and off.

One night after Obi-Wan had gone to sleep, Luke decided to practice his sweet lightsaber moves, so that the princess would be impressed when they rescued her. When he was done, he believed that he'd flipped the lightsaber off, unaware that an intermediate position existed between the on and off positions. While Luke was admiring his Force-bulked physique in the mirror, the lightsaber, which had indeed not been fully turned off, flipped from the intermediate position back on, and sliced off Luke's hand.

Luke sued the lightsaber manufacturer, claiming that the intermediate position was a design defect.

The imperial court held that while the lightsaber was defective in its design, however a space jury found that Luke was negligent for not taking measures to ensure the lightsaber was off, and he was held 50% responsible for his own injury. They found that although Luke did not have a duty to guard against unknown defects, he did have a duty to take reasonable precautions to secure his lightsaber. Because Luke had read the holographic manual, he knew the safety measures required to ensure it was properly turned off, and had breached his duty when he failed to follow those measures. Therefore the imperial court held that the lightsaber manufacturer's damages should be reduced by 50% to account for Luke's comparative responsibility in the harm.

Gammon v. Osteopathic Hospital of Maine- (Supreme Court of Maine, 1987)

Lobot, Lando Calrissian's assistant on the floating Cloud City on Bespin was grieving his recently deceased mother, as well as the loss of his employer Lando Calrissian due to his high-stakes contracting with the Empire (see Williams v Thomas-Walker Furniture Co- (Federal Court of Appeals-DC Circuit, 1965). Later that day, Lobot received a package from the Cloud City infirmary that he believed contained his dead mother's personal effects. When he opened the bag, he discovered that it only contained Luke Skywalker's severed hand, which while cauterized by Darth Vader's lightsaber strike, had begun to rot and turned blue in the process.

Lobot claimed to suffer emotional distress from the incident, having cyborg/human relations malfunctions and administration-related nightmares, growing distant from his family. Lobot did not report any physical ailments suffering from his emotional distress, nor did he seek professional help from the Cloud City counselor.

He sued the Cloud City infirmary for emotional damages. The court ruled that while Lobot was not within the "zone of danger", he had satisfied the court's newly established test that an individual must suffer "more emotional damage than a reasonable cyborg could bear", and held that the infirmary was obviously negligent in its mishandling of bodily remains. The court also noted that as family member of someone who was recently deceased, Lobot was much more likely to be trustworthy, limiting concerns of future floods of litigation.

Hawkins v. McGee- (New Hampshire Supreme Court, 1929)

While coming in for several routine tune ups for his cybernetic prosthetic, Medical Droids 2-1B and FX-7 attempted to persuade Luke Skywalker that they could repair his hand and make it "as good as new", further promising him "one hundred percent good hand".

Despite their poor grammar, after several visits the Droids were successful and Luke agreed to undergo their procedure. The droids used an experimental form of "skin grafting" and removed skin from Luke's chest to use as the "new" tissue for the hand. Unfortunately, the tissue used for the graft continued to grow chest hair, and Luke's hand became increasingly hairy, leading to his need to wear a black glove over the hand at almost all times (see, Return of the Jedi).

Luke sued the droids for breach of contract, as well as pain and suffering. The court dismissed the claim for pain and suffering stating that these effects were inherently a part of the procedure that Luke agreed to; however, the court did hold that the Droids were liable to Luke for breach of contract, and that the damages the Droids owed to Luke should be equal to the difference to the hand he received (one that was disgusting and hairy) and the one he was promised (one that was "one hundred percent good hand"). This was based on the reasoning of "expectation interest" which aims to place Luke in the position he would have been, had the Droids not breached the contract.

Pierson v Post- (Supreme Court of Judicature of New York, 1805)

Biggs Darklighter is flying his T-16 down Beggar's Canyon, an unowned plot of land on Tatooine. Biggs locates and begins pursuing a wild womp rat. Just as he is about to corner the womp rat in a corner of the canyon and fire upon it, Luke Skywalker bullseyes the womp rat from his T-16 and makes off with it. Biggs files suit, claiming that Luke stole his womp rat. Looking to the logic of earlier authors, the council rules that even though Biggs was in pursuit, intent to possess and pursuit alone are not enough to convert the womp rat into property. Luke's intention of possession was made real by the act of mortally wounding the womp rat, sufficiently converting the womp rat into his property.