Posted by Deana Curis.
Mattress Firm has been known as the largest mattress chain in America for several generations. However, it seems that this time is coming to an end. Traditional means of purchasing mattresses are slowly diminishing as online shopping has become more and more popular. Consequently, Mattress Firm has run into the need to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Mattress Firm claims that they will still have timely deliveries and continue to pay suppliers in full, as Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows for companies to keep businesses active while they pay back creditors. The filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy will ultimately allow Mattress Firm to try and fix the downfalls in their company that had previously prevented them from success.
Again, the availability of online shopping has caused several companies to file for bankruptcy. Brookstone, Nine West, and now even Sears have needed to file for bankruptcy due to “online culture”. In terms of the mattress industry, online platforms, such as Amazon, have put Mattress Firm and other mattress companies at major risk. However, Mattress Firm faces many more issues that prevent them from prosperity. The existence of multiple locations in close proximity to one another is a large matter in question for the company. Luckily, Chapter 11 bankruptcy is frequently used to “reorganize” a corporation, and this is exactly what Mattress Firm plans to accomplish by filing it as well. For example, the company plans to reorganize by closing down seven hundred locations that are in close proximity to others by the end of this year alone. The company also claims that they will use the money that is saved by closing locations in order to overall improve the brand as a whole.
Universally, it is evident that more and more physical stores will be obligated to shut down due to online trends in today’s society. The mattress industry began to plummet with the closing of Sleepy’s, and is now continuing with the filing of bankruptcy from Mattress Firm. Yet, it is not solely the mattress industry that is being damaged by online shopping, but retail and other corporations as well. It is interesting to think about what this may propose for the future of shopping as a whole, and the amount of companies that may also need to file for bankruptcy as a result.
Deana is marketing major, pre-dental track at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2021.
Works Cited
“’A Wake-up Call for Traditional Mattress Chains’: Mattress Firm Files for Bankruptcy.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 5 Oct. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/05/wake-up-call-traditional-mattress-chains-mattress-firm-files-bankruptcy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c16972a2522b.
Posted by Aliasger Mithaiwala.
Qualcomm, a telecommunications company that designs and sells wireless telecommunications products and services, is suing Apple Inc. for patent infringement. Apple was originally the initiator in this entire legal conflict because they were the first to file a lawsuit against Qualcomm. Specifically, they filed an “antitrust suit against [them], arguing that the chipmaker’s licensing practices are unfair, and that it abused its position as the biggest supplier of chips in phones” by charging Apple more in payments than any other company (King). This suit Apple initiated claims that Qualcomm has been “charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with” and that the telecommunications company has been “withholding nearly $1 billion in payments from Apple as retaliation for responding truthfully to law enforcement agencies investigating them” (Balakrishnan). After this first legal bout, Apple ended its licensing program with Qualcomm, which has cost the telecommunications company billions of dollars in lost revenue. As a result of this suit by Apple, Qualcomm shares decreased by “19 percent … [while] Apple shares are up 36 percent this year” (King).
Qualcomm then fired back with a lawsuit of its own, which could potentially prove fatal to Apple, if the court finds it reasonable. Qualcomm disagrees with Apple’s claims stated above and cites that, “Apple employs technologies invented by Qualcomm without paying for them,” and as a result, they have filed lawsuits in China, which they intend to ban Apple from selling and manufacturing iPhones in that country (King). If the court finds that Apple is to blame and finds the ban a reasonable punishment, then Apple will lose a large sum of money because not only will their costs of making the products increase drastically, but also they will be unable to market and sell the product in China, which possesses the largest population in the world. In addition, “two-thirds of Apple’s revenue” is derived from China and because this suit became public, Apple has already seen some of the effects (King). Its shares “gave up some gains from earlier on Friday,” so if this lawsuit continues in favor of Qualcomm, Apple may see a continued decrease in their stocks (King).
The lawsuit against Apple is of patent infringement; however, there are multiple parts as to this particular patent infringement case. Qualcomm’s lawsuit is based on “three non-standard essential patents,” which covers “power management and a touch-screen technology called Force Touch that Apple uses in [its] current iPhones” (King). Apple uses the technology of Qualcomm to better its products and increase their profits; however, as per Qualcomm, Apple does not pay them for the use of their technology. Obviously, there are many different viewpoints of this story: one from Apple and one from Qualcomm. The courts will expose the truth and the financial ramifications will certainly be grave at the expense of one company’s finances.
Aliasger is a finance major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2020.
Works Cited
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-13/qualcomm-seeks-china-iphone-ban-escalating-apple-legal-fight
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/20/apple-sues-qualcomm-for-1-billion.html
Research proposal posted by Valentina Reyes.
Tort law carries the “no duty to rescue” principle, which establishes an individual’s freedom to choose whether to intervene in situations of peril while imposing no sanction on those who choose not to act. “While there is properly in law a duty not to harm, there is not . . . a negative duty not to allow harm to happen” (U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes). So long as there is no fiduciary relationship – which is defined as a relationship of trust or legal obligation of a person to another – between the two parties, an individual is not obliged to intervene, even if refraining from doing so may lead to the impending death of the other. This principle was established with the idea that people should not be held responsible for the demise of others unless they were directly involved with the causation of the incidents that led to the other’s peril, or had some established duty of care to the other, and to protect one’s freedom of choice.
In some instances, some courts may find that if a person began to rescue another and then ceased, the rescuer may be found liable if the reasonable person would have continued to rescue the victim. Under the umbrella of negligence, this is called “undertaking to act.” However, some states provide immunity from liability under specific statutes typically referred to as “Good Samaritan laws.” These statutes are put in place to protect those who, in good faith, decide to help in an emergency situation from being sued in civil court for any damage which may result from their act or omission to act. Depending on the situation, courts may wish to protect a rescuer or deem them responsible for negligent acts if the additional damage caused to the plaintiff resulted from an unreasonable act by the rescuer.
While the “no duty to rescue” principle was put in place to protect people’s liberty to choose, it also gives people power to allow others to perish. On the one hand, people are free to choose whether to get involved, but if they choose not to help when they are capable of helping and when the help may save a life, then they have the indirect power over another’s life. The principle also reinforces individualistic behavior that is already very much present in American society and culture which is often noted as being extremely averse to collectivism. Further, if a person intends another to perish by doing nothing, they may be able to get away with being the indirect cause of the other’s demise by choosing to do nothing out of a desire to cause the other harm. In this case, we have the element of mens rea without actus reus (so long as the bystander was not involved in the proximate cause of the victim’s accident or ailment), and the person intending to do harm by doing nothing could be protected under the law. In the case that the defendant was involved in the proximate cause of the victim’s accident, as was the case in Podias v. Mairs, the defendant could be found guilty for doing nothing because at that point, a fiduciary relationship is formed because but for the defendant’s actions, the victim would not have been put in danger.
Catholic social teaching teaches us that we should love everyone and show a sense of community towards our neighbors. We should treat everyone how we would like to be treated and respect and protect all forms of life. Whether we are free to choose, we should do the correct thing and provide help when we can for those who need it because if we are the difference between life and death for another, it does not take much away from us to give another what they can never get back. Gaudium et Spes states “[…] the duty which is imposed upon us, that we build a better world based upon truth and justice. Thus, we are witnesses of the birth of a new humanism, one in which man is defined first of all by this responsibility to his brothers and to history.”
Works Cited
http://www.siue.edu/~evailat/i-mill.html
http://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/specific-legal-duties.html
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-superior-court-appellate-division/1187493.html
https://www.stthomas.edu/media/catholicstudies/center/ryan/conferences/2005-vatican/Uelmen.pdf
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
http://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/specific-legal-duties.html
http://negligence.uslegal.com/specific-duties/duty-to-rescue/
https://www.shrm.org/legalissues/stateandlocalresources/stateandlocalstatutesandregulations/documents/goodsamaritanlaws.pdf
Research proposal posted by Brian Kane.
In the digital age, the rights and laws regarding privacy are being contested now more than ever. Today personal privacy, both digital and physical, is being discussed. One of the earliest examples of privacy laws in the United States is the 4th amendment. Under this amendment gives “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” (Fourth Amendment, U.S. Constitution). This and other laws, including the Federal Wiretap Law of 1968, are designed to protect the individual against unlawful searches of personal property by an unfair government. The individual right to privacy is held sacred in this country.
However, the laws of privacy protection are not absolute. Communications and interactions in general areas, such as online chatrooms, and digital communication used for work. Surveillance monitoring by employers has been contested by employees in courts in multiple cases. In City of Ontario, California v. Quon, for example, a search was justified because there were “reasonable grounds” and done “for a non-investigatory work-related purpose” (Ontario v. Quon).
Some argue that the privacy laws are for the best interests of individuals. Individuals and consumers are protected when the monitoring parties have clearly defined limits and barriers. When the government requires search warrants and the corporations are required to obtain consent, the best interests of those being monitored are kept in mind. The constant surveillance by powerful entities removes the right for individuals to act freely and live their own lifestyle. Gratuitous monitoring dehumanizes the employee and implies guilt without any evidence.
Privacy law is not completely virtuous, however. Like all laws, some may seek to exploit privacy law and use it to shield unproductive, immoral, and unethical behavior. When employees use corporate email accounts for personal business, they often claim a right to privacy when investigation begins. Many act recklessly online in this digital age, assuming that the right to privacy is absolute and unbreakable. There are instances where there is legitimate reasons to investigate an individual. When there is probable cause, public good supersedes individual privacy.
The issue of privacy and surveillance laws raises many ethical questions. The rights of individuals and the definition of individualism is put into question when anyone is monitored by a third party. There is concern for the maintenance of human dignity, as some see these searches dehumanizing and distressing on private lives. Pope Leo XIII spoke out against increased surveillance, saying that it intruded and lead to control over individuals. In Catholicism, the holy sacrament of confession revolves around the private recounting of sins and transgressions. When discussing privacy, the matter common good is raised. Aquinas believes that law is created for the common good, “made by him who has the care of the community and promulgated” (2 Bix).
Privacy and Surveillance Law is a widely contested issue in the catholic faith and general ethics. It has its advantages and disadvantages, as any other issue in law, but it will continue to be contested as new innovations shape the information age.
Works Cited
Bix, Brian H. “Secrecy and the Nature of Law.” October 2013. University of Pennsylvania School, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law. Web. 3/3/2016. Avaliable: https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/2418-bixsecrecy-and-the-nature-of-law-full
City of Ontario v. Quon. 560 U.S. 746. Accessed 3/3/2016.