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vi CONTENTS
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CONTENTS vii
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viii CONTENTS
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CONTENTS ix
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x CONTENTS
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CONTENTS xi
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xii CONTENTS
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CONTENTS xiii
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xiv CONTENTS
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 730 Essay Questions 739
Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 730 Discussion Questions 739
Toxic Substances Control Act 730
Natural Resources 730 Appendix A
National Environmental Policy Act 730 The Constitution of the United States A1
You Be the Judge: Winter v. Natural
Appendix B
Resources Defense Council, Inc. 731
Uniform Commercial Code (Selected Provisions) B1
Endangered Species Act 732
Gibbs v. Babbitt 733 Glossary G1
Chapter Conclusion 735 Table of Cases T1
Exam Review 735
Multiple-Choice Questions 738 Index I1
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PREFACE
Looking for more examples for class? Do you want the latest developments? Visit our blog at
Bizlawupdate.com. To be notified when we post updates, just “like” our Facebook page at
Beatty Business Law or follow us on Twitter @bizlawupdate.
Landmark Cases
As a general rule, we want our cases to be as current as possible, reporting on the world as it is
now. However, sometimes students can benefit from reading vintage cases that are still good law
and provide a deep understanding of how and why the law has developed as it has. Thus, for
example, we have added a discussion about the famous Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona.
Reading this case provides students with a much better understanding of why the Supreme
Court created Miranda rights, and this context helps students follow the recent Supreme Court
rulings on Miranda. Other landmark cases include Hawkins v. McGee (the case of the hairy hand),
Griggs v. Duke Power Co., and International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington.
xv
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xvi PREFACE
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has
deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
PREFACE xvii
book that was different from all the others. Our goal was to capture the passion and
excitement—the sheer enjoyment—of the law. Business law is notoriously complex, and as
authors we are obsessed with accuracy. Yet this intriguing subject also abounds with human
conflict and hard-earned wisdom, forces that can make a law book sparkle.
Now, as this fifth edition goes to press, we look back over the intervening years and
are touched by the many unsolicited comments from students, such as these posted on
Amazon:
• “Glad I purchased this. It really helps put the law into perspective and allows me as a
leader to make intelligent decisions. Thanks.”
• “I enjoyed learning business law and was happy my college wanted this book.
THUMBS UP!”
We think of the students who have emailed us to say, “In terms of clarity, comprehen-
siveness, and vividness of style, I think it’s probably the best textbook I’ve ever used in any
subject,” and “I had no idea business law could be so interesting.” Or the faculty who have
told us, “Until I read your book, I never really understood UCC 2-207” and “With your
book, we have great class discussions.” Comments such as these never cease to thrill us and
to make us grateful that we persisted in writing a Legal Environment text like no other—a
book that is precise and authoritative, yet a pleasure to read.
Comprehensive. Staying comprehensive means staying current. This fifth edition
contains over 50 new cases. Almost all were reported within the last two or three years.
We never include a new court opinion merely because it is recent, but the law evolves
continually, and our willingness to toss out old cases and add important new ones ensures
that this book—and its readers—remain on the frontier of legal developments.
Look, for example, at the important field of corporate governance. All texts cover par
value, and so do we. Yet a future executive is far likelier to face conflicts over Sarbanes-
Oxley (SOX), executive compensation, and shareholder proposals. We present a clear path
through this thicket of new issues. In Chapter 20, for example, read the section about the
election and removal of directors. Typically, students (even those who are high-level
executives) have a basic misconception about the process of removing a director from office.
They think that it is easy. Once they understand the complexity of this process, their whole
view of corporate governance—and compensation—changes. We want tomorrow’s business
leaders to anticipate the challenges that await them and then use their knowledge to avert
problems.
Strong Narrative. The law is full of great stories, and we use them. Your students
and ours should come to class excited. Look at Chapter 3, “Dispute Resolution.” No
tedious list of next steps in litigation, this chapter teaches the subject by tracking a
double-indemnity lawsuit. An executive is dead. Did he drown accidentally, obligating
the insurance company to pay? Or did the businessman commit suicide, voiding the
policy? The student follows the action from the discovery of the body, through each step
of the lawsuit, to the final appeal.
Students read stories and remember them. Strong narratives provide a rich context for
the remarkable quantity of legal material presented. When students care about the material
they are reading, they persevere. We have been delighted to find that they also arrive in
class eager to question, discuss, and learn more about issues.
Precise. The great joy of using English accurately is the power it gives us to attack
and dissect difficult issues, rendering them comprehensible to any lay reader. This text
takes on the most complex legal topics of the day, yet it is appropriate for all college and
graduate-level students. Accessible prose goes hand in hand with legal precision. We take
great pride in walking our readers through the most serpentine mazes this tough subject
can offer.
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xviii PREFACE
As we explore this extraordinary discipline, we lure readers along with quirky anecdotes
and colorful diagrams. (Notice that the color display on page 525 clarifies the complex rules
of the duty of care in the business judgment rule.) However, before the trip is over, we insist
that students:
• Gauge policy and political considerations,
• Grapple with legal and social history,
• Spot the nexus between disparate doctrines, and
• Confront tough moral choices.
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
PREFACE xix
Along with other professors, we have used this text in courses for undergraduates,
MBAs, and Executive MBAs, with the students ranging in age from 18 to 55. The book
works, as some unsolicited comments indicate:
• An undergraduate wrote, “This is the best textbook I have had in college, on any
subject.”
• A business law professor stated that the “clarity of presentation is superlative. I have
never seen the complexity of contract law made this readable.”
• An MBA student commented, “I think the textbook is great. The book is relevant,
easy to understand, and interesting.”
• A state supreme court justice wrote that the book is “a valuable blend of rich
scholarship and easy readability. Students and professors should rejoice with this
publication.”
• A Fortune 500 vice president, enrolled in an Executive MBA program, commented,
“I really liked the chapters. They were crisp, organized and current. The information
was easy to understand and enjoyable.”
• An undergraduate wrote, “The textbook is awesome. A lot of the time I read more
than what is assigned—I just don’t want to stop.”
Humor Throughout the text, we use humor—judiciously—to lighten and enlighten. Not
surprisingly, students have applauded—but is wit appropriate? How dare we employ levity
in this venerable discipline? We offer humor because we take the law seriously. We revere
the law for its ancient traditions; its dazzling intricacy; its relentless, though imperfect,
attempt to give order and decency to our world. Because we are confident of our respect
for the law, we are not afraid to employ some levity. Leaden prose masquerading as legal
scholarship does no honor to the field.
Humor also helps retention. Research shows that the funnier or more bizarre the
example, the longer students will remember it. Students are more likely to remember a
contract problem described in a fanciful setting, and from that setting recall the underlying
principle. By contrast, one widget is hard to distinguish from another.
Features
We chose the features for our book with great care. Each one supports an essential
pedagogical goal. Here are some of those goals and the matching feature.
Exam Strategy
GOAL: To help students learn more effectively and to prepare for exams. In preparing this
fifth edition, we asked ourselves: What do students want? The short answer is—a good
grade in the course. How many times a semester does a student ask you, “What can I do to
study for the exam?” We are happy to help them study and earn a good grade because that
means they should also be learning.
About six times per chapter, we stop the action and give students a two-minute quiz. In
the body of the text, again in the end-of-chapter review, and also in the Instructor’s Manual,
we present a typical exam question. Here lies the innovation: We guide the student in
analyzing the issue. We teach the reader—over and over—how to approach a question: to
start with the overarching principle, examine the fine point raised in the question, apply the
analysis that courts use, and deduce the right answer. This skill is second nature to lawyers,
but not to students. Without practice, too many students panic, jumping at a convenient
answer and leaving aside the tools that they have spent the course acquiring. Let’s change
that. Students who have tried the Exam Strategy feature love it.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has
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xx PREFACE
Ethics
GOAL: Make ethics real. We ask ethical questions about cases, legal issues, and commercial
practices. Is it fair for one party to void a contract by arguing, months after the fact, that
there was no consideration? What is a manager’s ethical obligation when asked to provide a
reference for a former employee? What is wrong with bribery? What is the ethical obligation
of developed nations to dispose of toxic waste from computers? We believe that asking the
questions and encouraging discussion reminds students that ethics is an essential element of
justice and of a satisfying life.
Cases
GOAL: Let the judges speak. Each case begins with a summary of the facts and a statement
of the issue. Next comes a tightly edited version of the decision, in the court’s own
language, so that students “hear” the law developing in the diverse voices of our many
judges. We cite cases using a modified bluebook form. In the principal cases in each
chapter, we provide the state or federal citation, the regional citation, and the LEXIS or
Westlaw citation. We also give students a brief description of the court. Because many of our
cases are so recent, some will have only a regional reporter and a LEXIS or Westlaw citation.
Exam Review
GOAL: Help students to remember and practice! At the end of every chapter, we provide a
list of review points and several additional Exam Strategy exercises in a Question/Strategy/
Result format. We also challenge the students with 15 or more problems—Multiple-Choice,
Essay Questions, and Discussion Questions. The questions include the following:
• You Be the Judge Writing Problem. The students are given appellate arguments on both
sides of the question and must prepare a written opinion.
• Ethics. This question highlights the ethical issues of a dispute and calls upon the
student to formulate a specific, reasoned response.
• CPA Questions. Where relevant, practice tests include questions from previous CPA
exams administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Answers to all the Multiple-Choice questions are available to students online through
www.cengagebrain.com.
Author Transition
Jeffrey Beatty fought an unremitting 10-year battle against a particularly aggressive form of
leukemia which, despite his great courage and determination, he ultimately lost. Jeffrey, a
gentleman to the core, was an immensely kind, funny and thoughtful human being, some-
one who sang and danced, and who earned the respect and affection of colleagues and
students alike. In writing these books, he wanted students to see and understand the impact
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
PREFACE xxi
of law in their everyday lives, as well as its role in supporting human dignity, and what’s
more, he wanted students to laugh.
Because of the length of Jeffrey’s illness, we had ample time to develop a transition
plan. Through a combination of new and old methods (social media and personal connec-
tions), we were able to identify a wonderfully talented group of applicants—graduates of
top law schools who had earned myriad teaching and writing prizes. We read two rounds of
blind submissions and met with finalists. In the end, we are thrilled to report that Dean
Bredeson has joined the Beatty/Samuelson team. A member of the faculty of the
McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Dean is a devoted teacher
who has received the school’s highest teaching award for the last five years. He is also
the author of the textbook, Applied Business Ethics (Cengage, 2011). Dean has a number of
qualities that are essential to a textbook writer—keen insight into explaining complex
material in an engaging manner, meticulous attention to detail, an ability to meet dead-
lines, and a wry sense of humor.
TEACHING MATERIALS
For more information about any of these ancillaries, contact your Cengage Learning/South-
Western Legal Studies Sales Representative for more details, or visit the Beatty & Samuelson
Legal Environment, 5th edition web page, accessed through www.cengagebrain.com.
Instructor’s Resource CD. The Instructor’s Resource CD (IRCD) contains the
ExamView testing software files, the test bank in Microsoft Word files, the Instructor’s
Manual in Word files, and Microsoft PowerPoint Lecture Review Slides.
Instructor’s Manual. Available both online at and on the IRCD, this manual
includes special features to enhance class discussion and student progress:
• Exam Strategy problems. If your students would like more Exam Strategy problems,
there is an additional section of these problems in the Instructor’s Manual.
• Dialogues. These are a series of questions and answers on pivotal cases and topics.The
questions provide enough material to teach a full session. In a pinch, you could walk
into class with nothing but the manual and use the Dialogues to conduct an exciting
class.
• Action Learning ideas. Interviews, quick research projects, drafting exercises, classroom
activities, commercial analyses, and other suggested assignments get students out of
their chairs and into the diverse settings of business law.
• Skits. Various chapters have lively skits that students can perform in class, with no
rehearsal, to put legal doctrine in a real-life context.
• Succinct introductions. Each chapter has a theme and a quote of the day.
• Current focus. This feature offers updates of text material.
• Additional cases and examples. For those topics that need more attention or coverage,
use the additional cases and examples provided in the Instructor’s Manual.
• Solutions. Answers to You Be the Judge cases from the text and to the Exam Review
questions found at the end of each chapter.
Test Bank. The test bank offers hundreds of essay, short-answer, and multiple-choice
problems and may be obtained online or on the IRCD.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has
deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xxii PREFACE
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has
deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
PREFACE xxiii
Access to the Business Law Digital Video Library is available as an optional package with
each new student text at no additional charge. Students with used books can purchase
access to the video clips online. For more information about the Business Law Digital Video
Library, visit www.cengagebrain.com.
A Handbook of Basic Law Terms, Blacks Law Dictionary Series. This paper-
back dictionary, prepared by the editor of the popular Black’s Law Dictionary, can be packaged
for a small additional cost with any new South-Western Legal Studies in Business text.
Student Guide to the SOX. This brief overview for business students explains SOX,
what is required of whom, and how it might affect students in their business lives. Available
as an optional package with the text.
Interaction with the Authors. This is our standard: Every professor who adopts this
book must have a superior experience. We are available to help in any way we can. Adopters
of this text often call us or e-mail us to ask questions, obtain a syllabus, offer suggestions,
share pedagogical concerns, or inquire about ancillaries. One of the pleasures of working on
this project has been this link to so many colleagues around the country. We value those
connections, are eager to respond, and would be happy to hear from you.
Susan S. Samuelson
Phone: (617) 353-2033
Email: ssamuels@bu.edu
Dean A. Bredeson
Phone: (512) 471-5248
Email: bredeson@mail.utexas.edu
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We appreciate the thoughtful insights of the reviewers for this fifth edition:
Martha Broderick Carol Nielsen
University of Maine Bemidji State University
Burke Christensen Margaret A. Parker
Eastern Kentucky University Owens Community College
Michael Costello Cheryl Staley
University of Missouri, St. Louis Lake Land College
Suzanne M. Gradisher Paulette L. Stenzel
University of Akron Michigan State University
Wendy Hind Kenneth Ray Taurman, Jr.
Doane College Indiana University Southeast
Ronald B. Kowalczyk Deborah Walsh
Elgin Community College Middlesex Community College
Colleen Arnott Less
Johnson & Wales University
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
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“What!” roared the big lout, whom he had slightly touched upon the
arm. “Who the devil are you? Keep your hands off of me, you fool!”
The person on whom Adam looked was Gallows, whose face,
florid almost to being purple, was so savagely contorted as to
comprise an insult in itself.
“My cross-eyed friend,” retorted Adam, whose temper had risen
without delay, “have done looking at yourself, if you would see no
fool. If you will tell me which hand I put on you, I’ll cut it off, else I
may live to see it rot!”
The company had turned about at once. Pinchbecker was there,
with his satellite, Psalms Higgler, the little white-eyed scamp that
Adam had once dropped from the near-by window. The foppish
young Englishman, who owned the horse outside, was likewise in
the party. They all saw the burly Gallows turn to them hopelessly,
befuddled by Adam’s answer.
“You be a fool!” he roared again, his eyes bulging out of their
sockets in his wrath, “and I be the fool-killer!”
The company guffawed at this, the monster’s solitary sally of wit.
“You are a liar by the fact that you live,” said Rust. “Bah, you
disgust me with the thought of having the duties, which you have so
patently and outrageously neglected, thrust upon me. Begone.
There’s no fire to roast a barbecue, if I should be minded to spit you!”
The creature looked again at his fellows, who had obviously egged
him on.
“He insults you right prettily, good Gallows,” said the dandy, who
was himself a rascal banished from his own country. “But he dare not
fight you, we can see it plainly.”
“With you thrown in, I dare say there might be a moment’s sport in
a most unsavory blood-letting,” said Rust, whose hand went to his
sword-hilt calmly. “I should want some fresh air if I stuck either one of
you carrion-fed buzzards.”
Gallows knew by this that it was time to draw his blade. “You be a
fool and I be the fool-killer,” he roared as before, this being his best
hold on language to suit the occasion. Only now he came for Adam
like a butcher.
“Outside—go outside, gentlemen!” cried the landlord excitedly.
“Go outside!” said the voice of some one who was not visible. It
was Randolph, concealed in the adjoining room and watching the
proceedings through a narrow crack, where he had opened the door.
“Go on out, and I’ll fight you!” bellowed Gallows.
“After you,” said Rust, whose blade was out and being swiftly
passed under his exacting eye. “Go out first. You will need one more
breath than I.”
The brute obeyed, as if he had to do so and knew it, receiving
Adam’s order like the clod he was.
The other creatures made such a scrambling to see the show, and
otherwise evinced such an abnormal interest in the coming fight, that
Adam had no trouble in divining that the whole affair had been
prearranged, and that if he did not get killed, he would be arrested,
should he slay his opponent. He concluded he was something of a
match for the whole outfit.
“Have at you, mountain of foul meat,” he said, as he tossed down
his hat. “What a mess you will make, done in slices!”
The young dandy laughed, despite himself, from his place by the
door.
Gallows needed no further exasperations. He came marching up
to Rust and made a hack at him, mighty enough and vicious enough
to break down the stoutest guard and cleave through a man’s whole
body as well.
Rust had expected no less than such a stroke. He spared his steel
the task of parrying the Gallows’ slash. Nimbly leaping aside, he
made a motion that had something debonair in its execution, and cut
a ghastly big flap, like a steak, from the monster’s cheek.
The fellow let out an awful bellow and ran at his opponent, striking
at him like a mad Hercules.
“Spare yourself, fool-killer,” said Adam. He dared to bow, as he
dodged a mighty onslaught, in which Gallows used his sword like a
hatchet, and then he flicked the giant’s ear away, bodily, taking
something also of his jowl, for good measure.
The great hulk stamped about there like an ox, the blood
hastening down from his face and being flung in spatters about him.
Adam next cut him deeply in the muscle of his great left arm.
“I warm to my work,” he said, as he darted actively away and back.
“Gentlemen, is your choice for a wing or a leg of the ill-smelling
bird?”
The dandy, fresh from England, guffawed and cried “Bravo!” He
had been born a gentleman, in spite of himself.
The fight was a travesty on equality. The monster was absolutely
helpless. He was simply a vast machine for butchery, but he must
needs first catch his victim before he could perform his offices. He
was a terrible sight, with his great sword raised on high, or ripping
downward through the air, as he ran, half blinded by his own gore, to
catch the rover, who played with him, slicing him handily, determined
not to kill the beast and so to incur a penalty for murder.
The creatures inside the tavern, appalled by the exhibition they
had brought about, saw that their monster was soon to be a
staggering tower of blood and wounds.
“Don’t let him get away! Kill him! Kill him!” said the voice of
Randolph, from behind the others.
Adam heard him. He saw Pinchbecker shrink back at once.
Psalms Higgler, however, glad of an excuse and ready to take
advantage of a man already sufficiently beset, came scrambling out.
The foppish gentleman was too much of a sport to take a hand
against such a single swordsman as he found in Rust.
Aware that he was to have no chance, and convinced abruptly that
these wretches had plotted to kill him, Adam deftly avoided Gallows,
as the dreadful brute came again upon him, and slashing the fellow’s
leg behind the knee, ham-strung him instantly.
Roaring like a wounded bull, the creature dropped down on his
side, and then got upon his hands and knees and commenced to
crawl, wiping out his eyes with his reddened hands.
Unable to restrain his rage, and fearing his intended victim would
yet avoid him, Higgler being already at bay and disarmed, Randolph
came abruptly out from the tavern himself, pistol in hand, to perform
the task which otherwise was doomed to failure.
“Call the guard!” he cried. “Call the guard!”
Adam had been waiting for some such treachery. He cut at the
pistol the second it rose, knocking it endways and slicing Randolph’s
arm, superficially, from near the wrist to the elbow. He waited then
for nothing more.
Across the road, before any one guessed his intention, he was up
on the back of the horse, before the yelled protest of the English
gentleman came to his ears.
“Gentlemen all,” he called to the group, “good evening.”
Clapping his heels to the ribs of the restive animal, he rode madly
away, just as Isaiah Pinchbecker, with half a dozen constables came
running frantically upon the scene.
CHAPTER XXXI.
A REFUGEE.
A FOSTER PARENT.
Adam sang this song like a pleading. But his little partner could not
sleep, or feared to sleep. Then the rover looked at the tiny face and
realized that the child would soon be dying of starvation. At this he
started to his feet, abruptly.
He had undergone the pains of hunger often, himself; he was not
impatient now with the pangs in his stomach, nor the weakness in
his muscles. But he could not bear the thought of the child so
perishing, here in the wilderness.
He saw poor Wainsworth again, and heard him beg that the child
be given a chance. He thought of the man’s shattered life, his
escape from persecution, his isolation, in which he had preferred the
society of his Indian wife and child to association with his kind. Then
he blamed himself for coming further into this deserted region, when
he knew that by going back, at least he could find something for the
child to eat—something that would save its life!
But he could not forget that he himself was a refugee. Wrongly or
rightly, Randolph was still on his track. Nothing in his own case had
been altered, but the case was no longer one concerning himself
alone. He took the child on his arm, where he had carried him
already many miles, and faced about.
“Partner, let them take me,” he said. “I wish them joy of it.”
He started back for Boston, for in the child’s present extremity, the
nearest place where he could be sure of finding food was the only
one worthy a thought.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
REPUDIATED SILVER.