PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

Assume that you are working at a small personal injury firm in Birmingham, Alabama as a solo attorney and a client named Jimmy Varney, who is an online college professor, walks into your office on June 28, 2017, and tells you the following story:

In May 2016, Mr. Varney traveled to New York to visit his father with his wife and daughter. While Mr. Varney checked his work emails in the family’s hotel room in a no-frills motel, his wife and daughter went down to the pool to waste some time before dinner. As his wife and daughter attempted to leave the pool area and head in the direction of the elevator, Mr. Varney’s daughter, who was five years old at the time, saw an elderly couple entering the pool area with a Boston Terrier dog wearing a red “service dog” vest. Because the Varney family owns a Boston Terrier and because his daughter had never seen a Boston Terrier “service dog,” Mr. Varney’s daughter bent down to pet the dog. At the same time, the dog’s owners tried to tell my daughter not to pet their dog because he was vicious. As Mr. Varney’s daughter leaned down, the dog took a bite of her face. The bite resulted in the need for plastic surgery and now is now deadly afraid of dogs. Mr. Varney later learned that the elderly couple never had the dog trained as a service dog. Instead, the elderly couple, who both suffer from recognized disabilities, purchased the red “service dog” vest from the internet. Mr. Varney asks if he can sue the hotel or the elderly couple for his daughter’s injuries.

The material above in italics are your notes of the story that Mr. Varney told you. For purposes of this assignment, assume that you are a member of the New York State Bar, but that you do a majority of your legal work in Alabama. Because you are not familiar with New York law on the various issues raised by this situation, you need to do some legal research on the legal issues raised by Jimmy Varney’s situation.

Using Nexis Uni, please locate any applicable New York law that may govern Mr. Varney’s situation. Specifically, please locate any applicable New York statutes as well as several New York cases that have interpreted the applicable New York statutes. After you conduct your research, please submit your findings in a memo of no more than 1000 words. Make sure that you address whether Mr. Varney could sue the elderly couple or the hotel and if he sues them what the likely defenses that each party may raise. Please also note any additional facts that you may need to research to assess the merits of Mr. Varney’s potential claims.