[Avodah] T'uM

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:

> Or in this case, since doing business with an LLC means consciously
> taking on that risk, I as an LLC owner have no duty, not even to another
> ben Yisrael, to minimize or cushion that risk.

At whose expense?  I have no right to do so at the expense of my
existing creditors. (If they are not BY, perhaps I do have the *right*
to cheat them by giving the BY a secret advantage, running the risk
of getting caught, and perhaps this would be a wonderful thing to do,
and if I get caught perhaps I can consider the trouble I get in to be
suffering for a mitzvah; but I don't see how I can ever be *expected*
to do so.)

Or do you mean that Avi was right to keep quiet about his problems,
but should now have a moral obligation to make M&B good out of his
own pocket, despite his having taken explicit steps precisely to
protect himself from exactly this risk?


> Such an attitude would basically eliminate the reach of QYTD (Qedoshim
> tihyu, ve'asisa haYashar vehaTov, vehalakhta bidrakhav) style mitzvos
> from Choshein Mishpat.

Would it be QYTD for M&B to accept this money, if Avi were to offer it?
Why is it more right for the money to be in their pocket than in his?

 
> In contrast to Rav's pesaq that Rava bar R' Huna had to not only return
> the porters' cloaks and pay them even though they were to blame for the
> breakage of the barrels they were to carry. RbRH got no hana'ah from
> the job and still was expected to pay! Nu, his lifnim mishuras hadin
> is going to be on a different madreiga than mine, but still, to say I
> have no duties beyond the terms of the agreement (explicit or implied)
> is beyond my ken.

I confess that I have never understood that story, but even there,
would the result have been the same if RbrH had anticipated this
possibility, and had made an explicit tnai with the porters that they
would be responsible for breakages, and that they wouldn't be paid
unless they delivered the barrels whole?  Was there nothing at all
he could have done to shield himself from this loss?  How is that
just?  And what is the result of such an attitude?  That any sane
person will refrain from employing porters at all, unless absolutely
necessary!  It would surprise me if those particular porters ever
found another job, once this story became known.  I know I would never
employ them.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas