EVIDENCE



Professor Franks

Final Examination, Fall 2010



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS


1.   Carefully analyze the facts and grasp the issues in each question before beginning to write.  Spend time reading the question slowly and carefully.
2.   State the issues and answers to each question concisely.  Lengthy answers are not necessary.
3.   Do not repeat questions in your answers.  Write neatly and legibly on only one side of each page.
4.   Number your answers to correspond with the question, e.g., "II-5."
5.   If you feel it necessary to assume additional facts in any of the questions, give the facts that must be added and state why.
6.   Do not write in the margin of the book.
7.   All major questions are equally weighted unless otherwise indicated. Subparts are approximately equal but may be weighted slightly differently according to the number of issues involved in that subpart.
8.   Write your personal identification number and the name and section number of the course on which you are being examined on the cover of each examination book.
9.   If you use more than one book, indicate "Book One," "Book Two" and so forth on the cover of each book and write your PIN and the name and section number of the course on the cover of each examination book.
10.   A GOOD ANSWER IS NOT NECESSARILY A LONG ANSWER.









QUESTION I

54 per cent of test


I.

Susie and her husband Sam are getting a divorce.  Susie owns a small restaurant that she incorporated during the marriage.  Her stock in the company is undoubtedly community property and will need to be valued for purposes of partition of the community.  Bob Beancounter, CPA, has been Susie's accountant for years.  He is prepared to testify on Susie's behalf that the corporate stock is worthless and should be valued at zero.  He arrives at this conclusion by using the ultraconservative "book value" method of appraisal, which most accountants would reject as totally inadequate to evaluate an ongoing business.

   
1.   May Bob Beancounter testify as to the value of the business using the "book value" method of appraisal?  Discuss.

   
2.   Your research has revealed an article in the Journal of Accountancy entitled "How to Evaluate a Restaurant."  The article, by Professor Heinrich Hossenpfeffer of Harvard Business School, says:

Book value is both obsolete and worthless as a method of valuing an ongoing business, such as a restaurant or bar.  One most often sees book value used today where an accountant friendly to a business owner tries to put a low figure on the value of the business for purposes of underpaying the heirs of a deceased partner or for purposes of undercompensating the owner's spouse when dividing property in a divorce.

You wish to use the article to impeach Mr. Beancounter.  Can you?  Explain in detail how if at all you might be allowed to do so.  Discuss.

   
3.   Describe the ideal witness you might wish to call to contradict Bob Beancounter's testimony.  Discuss.




QUESTION II

46 per cent of test


II. Please answer the following questions with "true" or "false."  No other discussion or comments permitted.
   
1.   There are situations in which one may cross-examine one’s own witness.
   
2.   In present memory refreshed, the document handed the witness must have been made or adopted by the witness when the matter was fresh in his or her memory.
   
3.   Whether requested by a party or not, the court must take judicial notice of ordinances enacted by any political subdivision of the State of Louisiana.
   
4.   In a criminal case in which the defendant testifies, the prosecution may any time thereafter call character witnesses to testify as to the reputation of the defendant for truth and veracity.
   
5.   In Gerry Spence’s chapter entitled "The Eye of the Wolf," Spence’s close friend Alan Hirschfeld wrote Spence a letter complimenting him on his decision to represent Randy Weaver pro bono.
   
6.   The incident involving Randy Weaver occurred in western Nebraska.
   
7.   Randy Weaver accidentally shot and killed his own dog.
   
8.   Louisiana is considered a “two-party consent” state for purposes of wiretap law.
   
9.   In Louisiana, unless one posts a sign advising that video cameras are in operation, one may never videotape a person without his or her consent.
   
10.   In Louisiana, a custodial parent may legally eavesdrop upon and tape the telephone conversations of his or her own minor children.
   



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