James Sawy Trial

The Plaintiff, James Sawney owns a ranch in Steindale, Astoria. His brother Bill Sawney owns a ranch in Midland, Maspeth.

The Defendant, Sporting Stars, Inc., is an Astorian sporting equipment company, headquartered in Elmhurst, Astoria. They manufacture sporting goods, including baseball gloves which requires using chemicals such as tannin, alum and other chemicals. Sporting dumps these chemicals into the Sheepshead River which located near the Astoria and Maspeth border.

Thus, all the Sawney brothers' cows died from the polluted water because their ranchland near the Sheepshead River which is the major source of irrigation and farming water in both Astoria and Maspeth.

James Sawney demands Astorian $100,000 for the death of his cows.

In common law system, the lawyers have extensive role through the discovery process which means the parties can share information and evidence before the trial. In civil law system, the role of the lawyers is minimal and there is no discovery process before the trial because the judge investigates during the trial.

Here, the Sawney brothers have suffered for the death of their cows and under Maspeth tort law Code art. 2315, the Sporting Stars, Inc. is responsible for the death which is the result of dumping the chemicals into the Sheepshead River. The Sawney brothers could file a lawsuit in Maspeth since it is a civil law jurisdiction and under the statute of Maspeth tort law, the Sporting Stars, Inc. had a duty of care which is should not dumping the the chemicals into the Sheepshead River, the defendant breached that duty which was the cause in fact of death of cows and losses.

In fact, in the civil law system the judge will likely decide that Sporting is liable for damages because the statute is clear and easy to discern. However, during the trial the judge may ask for some evidence as part of the investigation. In this system