C
ONTRACTS
– L
AW
103, S
ECTION
A
Fall 2015 Syllabus
Prof. Erez Aloni
Classes: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 2:00–3:25 p.m.
LW3, Room 10
Office hours:
Contact details:
Tuesday 4:00–5:15 p.m.; Thursday 4:00–5:30 p.m.
Other times by appointment.
Building Two, Room 227 ealoni@law.whittier.edu
Teaching assistant: Ellen Reinig, ereinig@poets.whittier.edu
C OURSE M ATERIALS
The casebook is Farnsworth, Sanger, Cohen, Brooks, & Garvin, C
ONTRACTS
: C
ASES AND
M ATERIALS (8th ed. 2013). The casebook is available at the Whittier Law School
Bookstore. Assigned pages from the casebook are marked as “CB” in the reading list.
Note that the cases named in parentheses as included in each page span are only a subset of your assigned readings; be sure to read the included notes and commentary . Please bring the casebook to every class.
Primary materials from the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Restatement (2d) of Contracts are posted on the course site (TWEN). Please print these materials and bring them to every class. Any assigned reading not in these sources will be posted to the course site. Additional readings are marked as “supp.” in the reading list.
This syllabus is subject to change. Changes, if any, will be announced in class and by email.
C OURSE W EBSITE (TWEN)
Please note that I will maintain a course website mainly in order to upload materials. The course website will be maintained on The West Education Network (TWEN). You should register for the course website as soon as you receive your Westlaw passwords.
When communicating with Professor Aloni please use only your official Whittier e-mail accounts (poets.whittier.edu).
R
EADING
R
ESPONSIBILITY AND
P
ANELS
You are responsible for the readings every class , but to give you an idea of when you will generally be asked questions in class, I have divided you into three groups, with each group on a panel once a week, as assigned below. The panels are as follows (based on your last name):
Mondays : Ad—Ho
Tuesdays : Hy—Po
Thursdays : Re—We

The panel’s days do not change. For example, if one week we did not have a class on
Monday, the regular Tuesday panel is still on-call on Tuesday.
Important: Even if we have not covered the materials that your panel was responsible to read for a particular day, you must still be prepared to discuss those materials at any time.
That means that if you were on the Monday panel and we don’t reach the cases that were assigned for Monday (or we’ve covered only part of those cases) and we discuss them on
Tuesday, you must still be ready to discuss those cases on Tuesday. Likewise, the people who according to the syllabus are on call on Tuesday should be prepared to discuss their materials when we reach them, and so forth.
G RADING
Your grade for the semester will be based principally on two exams: a midterm that will constitute 15% of your final raw score and a three-hour closed-book final exam that will make up the rest of 85%.
The midterm will be given on Monday, September 28, 2015. More details about the midterm exam will be provided closer to the time.
The final exam will be given on Monday, December 7, 2015, from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Class attendance and participation will also affect your grade, as explained below.
A TTENDANCE
I have very little tolerance for tardiness. Southern California has heavy traffic and you should take that into consideration and make every reasonable effort to arrive at class on time.
If you are late, please enter the class with minimal interruption.
I will take roll in the first five minutes of the class.
Being late will result in my marking you absent from half a class. If you came late to class, please come right after class to the teaching assistant and let her know that you were late—so she can mark you for half attendance (otherwise, you will receive a full absence).
You are expected to attend every class unless you are ill or have an emergency.
If it is necessary to miss a class, please inform me in advance .
The policy manual states: “A student who is absent from more than 20% of the class hours in any given course will be automatically disqualified from further attendance at that course, and the student will be ineligible to take the final examination.”
P REPARATION AND P ARTICIPATION
I expect every student to be prepared for every class. At a minimum, adequate preparation includes reading closely all of the assigned material prior to the relevant class meeting. You may need to read the material two or more times in order to be fully prepared. Because you are on panels—which is less of a burden than being on call every class—I expect a higher familiarity with the reading materials on those days that your panel is on call.
I strongly suggest that you do the reading for every day and not only for the times you are on call . Coming to class without reading the cases will significantly reduce your level of understanding.

If, for some justified reason, you must come to class unprepared, please let me know before the class begins. If it becomes clear through your answers in class that you are unprepared, and you have not let me know in advance—your class grade will be reduced by 0.1 of a grade point on the 4.0 scale.
Conversely, in exceptional cases, for outstanding class participation—that is, participation that contributes to the class discussion with informed and challenging comments and questions—your grade will be increased by 0.1 of a grade point on the 4.0 scale. Note that outstanding participation does not refer to quantity but to quality.
Participation points will be given in rare cases and this decision is solely reserved to the professor.
L
APTOP AND
E
LECTRONIC
U
SE
P
OLICY
I know that many of you are used to writing on your computers, and you do it faster and can organize your outlines better this way. However, research from 2008, published by a psychology professor from Winona State University, found that “students who used laptops in class spent considerable time multitasking and that the laptop use posed a significant distraction to both users and fellow students. Most importantly, the level of laptop use was negatively related to several measures of student learning, including selfreported understanding of course material and overall course performance.” 1
Not only is the use of laptops disruptive, but more recent research also found that—even aside from the issue of multitasking—students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than those who took notes by hand.
2
In accordance, LAPTOPS ARE NOT PERMITTED IN THIS CLASS . In addition, the use of any other electronic device in the classroom is prohibited. Please turn off or silence cell phones, put them in your bags, and refrain from using them in class. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
If you wish, I will allow two students (who could be permanent or changing—based on your decision) to take notes on their laptops and then disseminate them to the rest of the class. I will discuss and coordinate this on the first day of class.
1
Carrie B. Fried, In-class Laptop Use and Its Effects on Student Learning , 50 C OMPUTERS & E DUCATION
2
906 (2008).
Pam A. Mueller & Daniel M. Oppenheimer, The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of
Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking , P SYCHOLOGICAL S CIENCE (2014).

R EADINGS
–
P ART 1 OF 3
Part One: B
ASES FOR
E
NFORCING
P
ROMISES
Class Date Topic Assigned Readings
1 Mon. 8/17 The Sources of
Contracts Law
Introduction to
Enforceable Promises

CB: 1-2, 8-9

UCC § 2-102, 2-105(1)

In the Matter of Baby M , 537
A.2d 1227 (N.J. 1988)
(supp.)
2
3
4
Tue. 8/18 Consideration as a Basis for Enforcement
(A) Fundamentals of
Consideration
(incl. Hamer v. Sidway;
Dyer v. National By-
Products )

CB: 34–48

Rest. 2d §§ 17, 71
Thur. 8/20 (B) The Requirement of
Exchange: Action in the Past
(incl. Feinberg v. Pfeiffer;
Mills v. Wyman; Webb v.
McGowin; Harrington v.
Taylor )

CB: 48–58

Rest. 2d §§ 74, 79, 81, 82, 83,
86
3
Mon. 8/24 (C) The Requirement of
Bargain
(incl. Kirksey v. Kirksey;
Lake Land Employment
Group of Akron, LLC v.
Columber )

CB: 58–67
3
After this, read the sections of the Restatement and the UCC that come up in the assigned cases and other readings; the syllabus will not name specific sections.

Class Date
5
Topic Assigned Readings
Tue. 8/25 (D) Promises as
Consideration
(incl. Strong v. Sheffield ;
Mattei v. Hopper; Wood v.
Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon )

CB: 73–81, 86–90
6
7
Thur. 8/27 Reliance as a Basis of
Enforcement
(incl. Ricketts v. Scothorn;
Feinberg v. Pfeiffer; D&G
Stout v. Bacardi Imports )

CB: 92–100, 106–12
Mon. 8/31 Restitution as an
Alternative Basis for
Recovery
(incl. Cotnam v. Wisdom;
Callano v. Oakwood Park
Homes; Pyeatte v.
Pyeatte )

CB: 112–23
8 Tue. 9/1 Review and Reflection
Part Two: C
REATING
C
ONTRACTUAL
O
BLIGATIONS
Class Date
9 Thur. 9/3
Mon. 9/7
Topic
The Nature of Assent
(incl. Lucy v. Zehmer;
Specht v. Netscape
Communication )
Labor Day – No Class
Assigned Readings

CB: 125–36, 139–40

Class Date
10
11
12
13
Tue. 9/8
Tue. 9/15
Topic Assigned Readings
The Offer
(incl. Owen v. Tunison;
Harvey v. Facey;
Fairmount Glass Works;
Lefkowitz v. Great
Minneapolis Surplus Store )

CB: 140–52
Thur. 9/10 The Acceptance
(incl. White v. Corlies &
Tift; Ever-Tite Roofing
Corp. v. Green; Ardente v.
Horan )
The Mirror Image Rule

Ardente v. Horan , 366 A.2d
162 (1976) (supp.)

CB: 156–57, 162–67, 175–
77, 199–201
Mon. 9/14 Termination of the Power of Acceptance
Revocation of Offers
(incl. Dickinson v. Dodds )
Revocability and Reliance
(incl. Drennan v. Star
Paving Co.; United States
Life Insurance Company v.
Wilson )

CB: 177–87

CB: 187–99
The Requirement of
Definiteness
(incl. Channel Home Ctrs. v. Grossman; Toys, Inc. v.
F.M. Burlington Co.;
Academy Chicago
Publisher v. Cheever )

CB: 252–266

Academy Chicago Publisher v. Cheever (supp.)
14 Thur. 9/17 Precontractual Liability
(incl. Hoffman v. Red Owl
Stores; Dixon v. Wells
Fargo, N.A
.)

CB: 234–47
15 Mon. 9/21 Review and Reflection