Reference no: EM132177492

Two-hundred students sign duly executed contracts with Spiral University of Rhetorical and Rancorous Engagement in All [but the] Law (hereinafter “SURREAL”) whereby they agree to pay (or finance) an astronomical sum of money at 6% interest over three years in exchange for a legal education, parceled out in 2-3 hour courses taught by a variety excellent professors with excellent pedigrees, excellent professors without excellent pedigrees, and professors with only excellent pedigrees. SURREAL assures these students, in writing, they will be well-prepared to pass their courses and the Bar exam throughout these three years, thus constituting the required consideration for its part of this contract. Of the 200 students having signed contracts with SURREAL, 35 choose an elective course called “Procedural Adventures In Neverland” (hereinafter “PAIN”) and study diligently, often compiling 55-page outlines complete with tables of contents; translating hundreds of pages of impenetrable Supreme Court Sanskrit; creating PowerPoint slides to rival the gods; and actually paying more attention to the professor (who falls into Category Three Pedigree, above) than to the most current Scrabble game. These 35 students were told the course would be graded on the basis of a single, final exam. This exam was advertised in writing in the syllabus, but only after two weeks of the course had already gone by. Still, the 35 students remained in PAIN, prepared to take this final examination, having studied PAIN diligently and worked hard to understand the basics, as-taught by the professor (who was, they were told, an expert in PAIN). Prior to the exam, the professor assured the students the exam would cover topics taught throughout PAIN, and the students prepared to be tested in PAIN accordingly. Upon receiving the exam, the 35 students of PAIN realized they had either been misled or that they had received the wrong examination. None of the 35 students recognized the call of the question, nor did any of them have any idea what the question was asking them to do. None of the words used in the calls of any of the questions bore any relationship to PAIN although, ironically, the questions did manage to illicit a lot of agony, despair, hopelessness, panic, and even prayer (I’m told Jesus just laughed and mumbled something about having had nothing to do with that convoluted pile of _____). None of the outlines of any of the students were of any use to any of them, nor was the textbook, nor any of the cases, nor any of the facts in the 2-page fact pattern preceding the question itself. As one student aptly analogized afterward, “It was like being trained to be a mechanic – learning how to fix the problems of a car that was already right in front of you based on general principles of car maintenance – and then showing up for your mechanic’s exam and being asked not to fix a car, but rather to design and build one from scratch. Obviously, the mechanic would fail, and obviously, so did all of us.”

1. What is the legal issue in this hypothetical? 2. What should the outcome be in this hypothetical?