What's Coming Up

The fireworks were really fun last night. The orchestra played movie themes; a couple times they had scenes from the movie playing on a big screen while they played. It was really fun. The fireworks were really close! I'm glad we went-- it was like vacation!

So, today was an easy one-- just reading for tomorrow and Friday. We are on the last two subjects: Wills and Trusts.

My multiple choice seems to be going OK. I was getting 80% on Con Law questions (intermediate ones) and something approaching that on Contracts questions (the easy problems). I don't think I've ever explained how they organize the MCs. For the subject-by-subject ones, they have the introductory, intermediate, and advanced questions. Then there are "Mixed Subject" which are like the intermediate ones mixed up. Then the "Simulated Exam" that I did a while ago and that's like mixed advanced questions.

Anyway... so I'm on track with Con Law, but still struggling with Contracts. What frustrated me about the K questions was that a bunch of them required a judgment call on whether an intervening event was actually foreseeable or not. That's something that's easy to address in essay because you argue both sides. But on MC, you just have to guess right. Two examples:

A contracted with B to buy all of the honey B's bees produced. B got really good at honey production and all of a sudden was making 50 times as much honey. B asked A if it was OK if they amended the contract to limit the amount of honey B had to sell A. A said it was alright. Then B suffered a debilitating injury and didn't sell A any honey. Does A have a cause of action for breach of contract?

Well, I thought that since B was really skilled with the honey, if he couldn't carry on it would be an unforeseeable intervening event that would excuse performance. I was wrong. Apparently, B should have delegated the honey-making to someone else.

Another example:

C's aunt had promised to will property to her and C's brother, D. When the aunt died, the will stated that only D should get the property. C contacted D and told him of the promise the aunt made. D said, "We should probably share it. Let's talk about it at the funeral." C thereafter bought an airplane ticket costing $800 to got to the funeral. After the service, she talked to D about the property. He told her to go fly a kite. Can C recover the $800 for the airplane ticket from D?

Well, I thought yes, since it was foreseeable to D that C might rely on his statement that they would talk about it at the funeral. It's not a contract, but what they call "quasi-contract." I was wrong. D apparently could not have foreseen that C would rely on his statement and come to the funeral.

That's why I've pretty much given up on contracts multiple choice. Now on essays-- I think I have a better shot since I would argue both sides on issues like those.

Anyway... so, we have Wills tomorrow, Trusts on Friday and then a few days off (with the next simulated exam on Saturday). Then, Monday and Tuesday are the last lectures on essay writing and performance test-taking.

As for my plan after that... They have it all scheduled out, but I think that deserves its own post.