Categories: Q and A

A Law Student’s Toolkit Coursera Quiz answers

Quiz 01: Applying the Box

Q1. The common law of contract has three traditional ways of calculating monetary damages:

Expectation damages aim to put the injured party in as good a position as she would have been in had the contract been performed.
Reliance damages aim to put the injured party back in the position she would have been in had the contract never been made.
Restitution damages aim to put the party in breach back in the position she would have been in had the contract never been made.

Which of these forms of damages would you put in box 1 of the matrix below?

Reliance damages
None of these; this should be the empty box.
Restitution damages
Expectation damages

Q2. The common law of contract has three traditional ways of calculating monetary damages:

Expectation damages aim to put the injured party in as good a position as she would have been in had the contract been performed.
Reliance damages aim to put the injured party back in the position she would have been in had the contract never been made.
Restitution damages aim to put the party in breach back in the position she would have been in had the contract never been made.

Which of these forms of damages would you put in box 2 of the matrix below?

Expectation damages
None of the above; this should be the empty box.
Restitution damages
Reliance damages

Q3. The common law of contract has three traditional ways of calculating monetary damages:

Expectation damages aim to put the injured party in as good a position as she would have been in had the contract been performed.
Reliance damages aim to put the injured party back in the position she would have been in had the contract never been made.
Restitution damages aim to put the party in breach back in the position she would have been in had the contract never been made.

Which of these forms of damages would you put in box 3 of the matrix below?

Expectation damages.
Reliance damages.
Restitution damages.

None of the above; this should be the empty box

Q4. Once you have assigned expectation, reliance, and restitution damages to their respective boxes, what should go in the empty box?

The damages calculation in the empty box would . . .

. . . put the harmed party in the same position she would have been in had the contract never been signed.
. . . put the party in breach in the same position he would be in were he to have performed on the contract.
. . . put the party in breach in the same position she was in after the contract was signed.
. . . put the harmed party in the same position she was in after the contract was signed.

Quiz 01: Statutory Interpretation

Q1. Consider the case Yates v. United States, 135 S.Ct. 1074 (2015), which involved interpretation of the statute 18 U.S.C. 1519:

“Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

Yates, a commercial fisherman, was charged and convicted under this statute. His offense? Ordering a crew member to toss undersized red grouper back into the sea in order to prevent federal investigators from proving that he had violated federal conservation regulations. The Court considered whether a fish was a “tangible object” under the statute.

Which interpretive canon[s] did Justice Ginsburg rely upon in her opinion?