Failing Contracts Grade Leads 1L to Initiate Breach of Contract Litigation

Benjamin Crawford, local BCLS 1L in section 4, brought a breach of contract and unjust enrichment suit earlier this week against his classmate James Kohl.  Crawford claims that Kohl and he had a longstanding contract to exchange notes from Contracts class when one of them missed class or just didn’t care enough to attend.  When the notes that Kohl sent to Crawford began to diminish in quality and then cease completely, Crawford became concerned.  It was after Crawford saw his Contracts grade that he decided to bring suit against his classmate using all of the knowledge he failed to learn in Contracts class.

“Kohl first approached me in September of last year and asked me if I would like to exchange class notes with him, seeing as how seldom we attended the class,” Crawford informed Eagleionline reporters.  “he initiated the contract, made an offer, and I accepted.  We sealed the deal with a beer at the Sunset Bar and Grill.”  Crawford said that the contract worked at the beginning of the semester, “we began performance the next week, him sending me his class notes as a bargained-for exchange in consideration of my sending him my notes.  We had arranged an option to opt out of the contract at Thanksgiving but neither party exercised that right.”

Problems developed in November when Kohl’s class notes from Contracts shrank until they were as short as a sentence or two.  One week his class notes consisted of a single sentence – “exchange must be bargained for.”  Crawford was distressed, “although I kept up my obligation, the promisee stopped taking quality notes and I, the promisor, experienced a detriment.  I was doing all of the work and he was unjustly experiencing all of the benefit.”  Crawford tolerated the diminished work product until review sessions at the end of the semester began.  “In late December I realized how much trouble I was in.  I hadn’t learned a thing about contracts because I had relied on James to my detriment.  The reason I got such a bad grade in the class was because of my reliance on his promise.”

This week is the first time Crawford has seriously applied Contracts law in his law school career.  Kohl has since filed for summary judgment, claiming that the contract was made in a bar and he did not have the capacity to contract in an inebriated state.  Kohl also argued that the notes were given with donative intent, “my notes were a gift to Ben.  I have the right to rescind anytime.”  There is also the issue of mistake of fact, “I thought the contract would expire around the next bar review, but Ben thought it would go until November,” Kohl claimed,  “I may have gotten a D- in Contracts, but I know that we made a mutual mistake, so this contract is unenforceable.”