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Welcome to Fellow Weekly!
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Fellow Weekly raises issues of business law and ethics through lively emails by featuring your real-life scenarios answered by our leading authorities and professionals. |
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CASE 162: Cashed In!
Sonja Good of Bakersfield California enjoyed her spending golden years at the Glenwood Gardens, a beautiful an assisted living
community which offered attractive Continuing
care retirement facilities. Her children and grandchildren made it their
business to visit her throughout the week. Sonja would listen to the children
talk, teach them how to knit, play bingo with them and share with them
eighty-nine years of history.
Last Tuesday afternoon, Sonja's ten-year-old granddaughter Leah
Rice came to visit. They decided to take a stroll down the road to Pride's Produce
Stand to purchase a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice.
That will be $1.50 please", said Jonathan, the cashier. "Sure
thing", replied Sonja. Sonja handed Leah $1.50, they took their cup of
Orange Juice and sat down beneath the shady green tree to enjoy the fresh air,
their drink and most of all each other's company.
Jonathan looked at one of the quarters Leah had handed him.
Suddenly his heart began to race. "I can strike it rich today," he said to
himself. "Look here, this madam gave me a 1932 US quarter which sells as a collector's
item for $1000."Jonathan took a quarter from his pocket, switched it for the collector's
quarter and promptly placed $1.50 in the cash register.
Jonathan made a mental note to cash in his quarter before nightfall.
What is the law?
[Submitted by Sandor Milan - Madison, Wisconsin / London]
Please email us with your comments and answers at weekly@projectfellow.org.
Read next week's issue for the answer!
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LAST WEEK'S CASE
CASE 162: A Free Ride?
Rail Corporation New South Wales
(RailCorp) is a statutory authority of the New South Wales government.
RailCorp owns, operates and maintains the Sydney
suburban and interurban rail network, marketed under the CityRail brand; in
addition to operating rural passenger services under the CountryLink brand.
Trains operate for 20 hours a day, and over 900,000 weekday passenger
journeys are made on 2365 daily services over 2080km of track and through 306
stations (including interurban lines).
"This past week in Sydney, the RailCorp
workers who run the light rail inside the city went on strike due to contract
disputes between the Union and RailCorp
management.
The Union decided to strike in a way that would not inconvenience the city
of Sydney,
however would still get the message across to management. They
ran the trains, yet they refused to check passenger tickets or sell
new tickets.
As I entered the station, a very polite worker confronted me, smiled
and happily advised me that today I should not bother going to the unoccupied
ticket counter, as I need not buy a ticket today.
Uneasy about pilfering a free ride, I decided to try to purchase a ticket
through the machine. I approached the machine only to find that a technician
had beaten me to it. He had already began opening it up in order to disable the
machine."
1. If I cannot convince the technician to allow me to purchase a ticket
before he disables the machine, may I ride the train to work today?
2. Am I stealing if I take advantage of the strike and take multiple rides today?
3. If I may ride the train to work without paying for a ticket, must I pay
for the ride when full service resumes?"
What is the law? [Submitted by E. H. Jerusalem]
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The Answer
As long as children will not wrongly learn from our behavior that jumping the turnstile or cheating an authority is allowed, one may ride the train free, even numerous times, during the duration of the strike.
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Detailed Explanation
A Free Ride? implicates the
following three laws.
1.One
may not steal services from an individual, service provider, statutory
authority, or government body. A thief is obligated to repay the value of
the stolen services to the victim [Choshen Mishpat 348: 2 Shach 3].
2. One who loses an
article to a lion, bear, and gales of a sea, rush of the river or similar
circumstance of almost sure defeat despairs from ever retrieving it.
Protesting the contrary is like crying over a collapsed home. As such,
consciously or subconsciously the initial owner allows another party to
pick up the article [Choshen Mishpat 259: 7].
3. One is
obligated to be extra vigilant never to allow children to learn from our
behavior, even if our actions are in accordance with the letter of the
law; that cheating and swindling is permissible [Succah 46b].
Application:
Objectively, it is forbidden to board the train without paying
for your ride at the required time. One who takes a free ride illegally must
repay for his or her theft afterward.
However, in our instance, RailCorp knew of the impending
strike, yet RailCorp continued providing train service.
Additionally, the authority knew that most of society would never even
consider paying for their rides later. Even if they would not turn an individual down if
he or she wished to pay later, they inevitably lost their claim to the value of the
rides that day.
Thus, the circumstances are no different from a gale of water
approaching articles on the beech. Railcorp, "threw the rides into the sea". Accordingly,
one is not guilty of theft for riding the train even numerous times that day free.
However, when traveling with children one must make sure
that they understand why today is different from the norm. If there is a
possibility that children or people who somewhat lack a "finer discerning
capacity" will mistakenly learn from our practice that one may jump the
turnstile, then it is forbidden to ride the train that day.
[Answered by the Fellow -Yesharim Research Center] |
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Enjoy featured articles, educational materials, and back issues on
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Note:
Although we aim to present the correct ruling, varying details are always important and decisively influence every individual case. Our readers are thus encouraged to present their personal cases to a competent authority and not solely rely on the information provided.
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