Question 1
(60 points - Suggested Time: One Hour)
Our client Polly Producer has a hobby which she hopes one day will become a profitable job. Polly has been editing videos on her computer and then "burning" DVDs in her computer's DVD player/recorder. One of the substantial costs involved in this hobby has been the cost of purchasing blank DVDs. She was pleased, therefore, to come across an announcement which arrived by e-mail from ExtremeMedia.com. Polly brought us a printout of the e-mail and I have reproduced it here:
Buy DVDs at a fraction of the price you have been paying!!!
Here is our deal: if you buy in quantities of 50 DVDs, we will sell you the DVDs for 50 cents each.
That's the deal – 50 DVDs for $25.00.And our gift to you for your first purchase of 50 DVDs will be 10 free DVDs, a value of $5.00.
Polly immediately logged in to the Extreme Media web site and placed an order for 50 DVDs for $25 (plus $10.00 for shipping and handling). Within minutes after placing that order on their web site, Polly received back the following e-mail:
Invoice # 345678
Purchase:
50 DVDs........................................................................................$25.00
Shipping and handling................................................................... $10.00
TOTAL......................................................................................... $35.00
Thank You.
Extreme Media Sales Department
One week later the DVDs were delivered. When Polly opened the package, however, she found the 50 DVDs, but not the additional 10 free DVDs. She immediately sent an e-mail to Extreme Media pointing out that the 10 free DVDs had not been included in the delivery she had just received.
Polly received back the following e-mail:
Dear Polly,
We are sorry that you were disappointed at not receiving the gift of the additional 10 DVDs mentioned in our e-mail advertisement. We were overwhelmed with orders in response to that advertisement and we ran out of the supply of DVDs that we intended to use for our gifts to our customers. We hope you enjoy your purchase of your DVDs.
Extreme Media Sales Department
Polly had assumed she was buying 60 DVDs for $35 (including shipping and handling). That would have amounted to about 58 cents per DVD. But instead she received 50 DVDs for $35, amounting to a cost of 70 cents per DVD. Polly says she could have purchased DVDs from a local computer store for 65 cents.
Polly admits that the difference is hardly worth suing over, but since she plans on going into a business which will frequently involve her in purchases of supplies, she wants to know whether Extreme Media has breached a contract with her.
Please consider the legal issues raised by Polly's experience in purchasing the DVDs from Extreme Media and make the legal arguments that can be made in support of Polly's position that Extreme Media has breached a contract between Polly and Extreme Media. In your analysis and arguments, you need to anticipate the arguments that Extreme Media will make in response to Polly's claim that they have breached their contract with her. Although this case involves a sale of goods, please provide an analysis under the common law, pointing out what difference(s) it would make, if any, were UCC Article 2 to be applied to the transaction.
Question 2
(60 points - Suggested Time: One Hour)
Our client, Walter Wonk, has been working for six year for the Pentagon in one of its intelligence offices. His special area of expertise has been the analysis of costs of weapons production in various parts of the world. A few months ago, Walter received a telephone call from Weapons Associates located in Los Angeles, California. Weapons Associates is a highly-regarded non-profit research organization, specializing in the study of weapons systems and military capacity in all regions and all countries. The President of Weapons Associates told Walter that he wanted him to leave the Pentagon and to come to work with his organization, and offered twice the salary that Walter was receiving at the Pentagon. Walter was, of course, flattered by the offer and excited at the possibility of such a dramatic increase in his salary. On the other hand, he was committed to public service and reluctant to leave the Pentagon. He had also never lived on the West Coast. He asked the President of Weapons Associates to give him a week to think over the offer. The President said that he would do so.
After careful consideration for three days, Walter decided to leave his job at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and to go to work for Weapons Associates in Los Angeles, California. He therefore told his supervisor that he was resigning immediately. Only then did Walter learn that his supervisor had been hoping that Walter would resign because his supervisor felt that the intelligence operation no longer had any need for Walter's area of expertise. His supervisor wished Walter success in his new job.
Walter called some friends in Los Angeles and through them he managed to find an apartment. He wired $2000 to Los Angeles to cover the first months' rent on the apartment.
Walter was about to place a call to Weapons Associates to tell the President he was coming to Los Angeles, when the President of Weapons Associates called him and told him that he was sorry to have to withdraw his offer because Weapons Associates had just lost a major source of its funding and couldn't afford to hire Walter.
Walter is, of course, extremely upset at this turn of events. He has come to us for legal advice. He would like to sue Weapons Associates for breach of contract. Please make the legal arguments that can be made in support of the position that Weapons Associates has breached a contract with Walter Wonk. In your analysis and arguments, you need to anticipate the arguments that Weapons Associates will make in response to Walter Wonk's claim that they have breached their contract with him.