As angry as Amanda was about the bad shipment from Ben, she stayed pretty busy at work and had just set aside the notion of suing Ben when she got an email from the $4-$H sponsor at East Carter High School asking for donations for their annual fundraiser. Amanda had been in $4-$H and FFA when she was in high school and knew the fundraiser well. There'd be a fish fry, hayrides, and dance lit up by multiple huge bonfires all around on the farm where the event would be held. Amanda had a great idea. She emailed the sponsor back and offered to donate all the wood needed for the bonfires. Then she called her CPA, Clarissa, and told her about the donation. Clarissa confirmed that by donating the fenceposts to $4-$H$,$ Amanda could offset her losses on the fencepost purchase by claiming their value as a charitable donation on her taxes. "Done deal," thought Amanda.

Dalton, Amanda's office manager, wasn't so sure. The delays in getting materials in meant he might have to lay off a few of his workers for a while and he thought Ben should have to be held responsible. Unbeknownst to Amanda, Dalton called up the company's lawyer, Elwood, and asked him to go ahead and file suit. Elwood drafted up the petition, Dalton signed it$,$ and Elwood filed it$.$

Later that same day, Ben's secretary$,$ Felicia, had just come back into the office from doing some work on her car. In the last big rainstorm, Felicia had parked her car in a low spot and water had seeped in and ruined the carpeting. The carpeting she'd ordered had come in and she'd installed it with specialized automotive glue. When she got back to her desk, Felicia was woozy from the glue fumes. Her stapler seemed to be creeping across her desk and just looking at her monitor had her grabbing for the trash can. Not wanting to fall behind on her work, though, Felicia was determined to power through. Felicia grabbed Amanda's file from the top of her inbox, totally misread its contents, and sent Amanda a check in the amount of $$75,000$ and a letter inviting Amanda to dispose of the rotten fenceposts however she saw fit. When Amanda received the check, she cashed it right away and told Clarissa not to bother with the tax deduction.

When Ben discovered what Felicia had done, as annoyed as he was, he thought, "Whatever. I was gonna lose anyway," and let it go$.$ A week and a half later, Ben was served with the suit Dalton had filed. Dalton called up his attorney and had him file a motion challenging to the petition on grounds that Dalton had filed the suit.

 

 

Question: 

What issues affecting the suit against Ben arise from these facts?

 

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