I wanted to make my first
post a little more general before we get into some more specific
disputes, and so I would like to analyze the positions of Scrat and
Scratte, two characters you may recall from the Ice Age movies. This
way we can go over some of the concepts
You may recall Scrat from
these movies. He is a grey squirrel squirrel with a very strong
attachment to a certain Acorn which he previously found and has
worked very hard to secure ownership over. If you need a refresher,
see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbsGWNXZ51I&feature=related.
Enter Scratte, a beautiful
female red squirrel, whom, as it turns out, is also a flying
squirrel. In Ice Age 3, she also finds the same Acorn and believes
it to be hers. For an overview of the facts, please see the
following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FihSyAikRY&feature=related
As you can see, there is
definitely a dispute here over the possession and use of the Acorn in
question. Lets begin by a short analysis of the dispute itself, and
lets assume that Scratte has the Acorn in her possession.
Scrat feels that the Acorn
is his. He has worked for a long time to secure the Acorn for
himself, well before Scratte came upon it three movies into the
series. He feels it belongs to him, even though it is not always in
his possession. He feels he has earned it. He is adamant that he
wants the Acorn back, and that he does not want to share it.
Furthermore, he hates Scratte. If anyone should have it other than
him, it should not be her. She tricked him on several occasions and
took advantage of his feelings for her.
Scratte feels that the Acorn
is hers. Scratte doesn't feel that Scrat has any ownership of it.
She is aware of the law and knows that in order to show ownership,
you have to have control over the item, and Scrat didn't have control
over it or she never could have taken it. And in the case where he
did have ownership of it, he abandoned it when he left in on the
ledge where she found it, fair and square. She feels the Acorn is
hers, and she intends on keeping it. Any actions she took to get it
back were only because she had no other choice. She doesn't trust
Scrat because every time she gave him the benefit of the doubt and
started to like him, he couldn't get past the Acorn.
Firstly, it is clear that
Scrat can take Scratte to court over the true ownership of the Acorn.
But both have a decent case, and whoever wins in court will take the
Acorn, and the other will lose out altogether.
The other end of the
spectrum could be that Scrat and Scratte try to work something out
with each other. But we know that their relationship has
deteriorated, there is a lack of trust, and there is some anger.
They have thus far been unsuccessful in coming up with a solution.
What course of action would
you propose to have these two squirrels in cahoots figure out a
solution?
We've all had someone cheat us out of an acorn (or two) at some point along the way.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I would highly recommend that Scrat or Scratte consult Jennifer McKenzie about their ‘nutty’ predicament in order to assess the strength of their legal footing before moving forward.
Although a simple suggestion for a complex dilemma, I suggest that a third grey squirrel "Scraat" cut the acorn in equal halves with both Scrat and Scratte present to receive their share. I realize that neither Scrat nor Scratte will be entirely satisfied with this outcome but it is a solution that would leave each party with something in a circumstance where they would otherwise risk ending up with nothing (in addition to the expensive and time consuming process of a trial) unless they concede to compromise.
You’re doing a great job! Keep up the great work!