QUESTION III
Ron's Russel's friend Morris Martin lost his recent campaign for a seat on the local city council. A few days before the election an anonymous advertising circular was distributed around town stating that in 1975 Morris had been arrested and convicted in California of selling marijuana. Ron believed that Morris's defeat was because of the anonymous circular. Ron asked the local police if it was a crime to circulate an anonymous election circular of this type. The police said they weren't sure, but promised to look into it further and get back to him.
On December 1, 1998, Ron paid for an advertisement in the "Daily News", seeking information about the source of the anonymous circular and offering a reward for information leading to the discovery of its source. The advertisement provided:
A REWARD OF $1000 WILL BE PAID FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION OF THE PERSON OR PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR CIRCULATING A STATEMENT DURING THE RECENT ELECTION INDICATING THAT MORRIS MARTIN HAD BEEN CONVICTED OF A CRIME. THIS OFFER IS GOOD THROUGH DECEMBER 10, 1998
Three claimants to the reward surfaced. The first was Ed Eager, who called on December 7, 1998, and advised Ron that two weeks earlier (before publication of Ron's offer of a reward) he had written a letter to the editor of the "Village Gazette", a neighborhood newsletter of limited circulation, correctly identifying Steve Seargent, Morris's opponent for city council, as the one responsible for distributing the anonymous circular. Ron, of course, did not know of Ed's letter when he published his offer of a reward, and had never heard of the Village Gazette.
The second claimant was Jim Jarvis. Without any knowledge about Ed's letter to the Village Gazette, and intending to take advantage of the $1000 reward published by Ron, on December 8, 1998, Jim sent Ron a letter with information proving positively that Steve Seargent as the one responsible for the circular. Because of a delay in the mail, however, Jim's letter did not reach Ron until May 11, 1998.
The third claimant was Connie Constable, a member of the city police department. She met with Ron on May 9, 1999, and advised him that she had learned of Ron's interest in identifying the person responsible for the advertising circular at the time of Ron's visit to the police station. When she saw Ron's ad in the paper, she used her police contacts in California to discover that Steve Seargent made an inquiry into Morris's arrest record several weeks before the election. She also revealed that the information provided in the anonymous circular about Morris's arrest was true, and that it was not illegal to circulate an anonymous advertising circular of this type in a political campaign.
RON WOULD LIKE TO AVOID PAYING THE REWARD TO ANY OF THESE THREE CLAIMANTS AND HAS ASKED FOR YOUR FIRM'S ADVICE. DRAFT AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLAIMS OF ED EAGER, JIM JARVIS, AND CONNIE CONSTABLE TO THE REWARD.
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