What were the RULES OF LAW you had to know and apply in order to excel on the February 2012 New York bar exam essays?
One BarWrite® Scholar sent the following generous message. I am posting it with his kind permission. I have only lightly edited it. And I have not seen the exam, so I certainly cannot correct it. This list has no official status, nor do I confirm that it is correct.
This BarWrite® Scholar wrote:
Below mentioned are some of the issues that I thought relevant on the essays.
1. Contract Question
a. Common Law Contract formation
b. Traditional SOF Mylegs
c. Contract that cannot be performed in a year. The period is calculated from the day the contract was entered into and not the period of performance. The contract was entered in 6 months prior to the commencement of the contract, though the contract was to be performed within a year.
d. Substantial Performance--material breach--the damages that can be recovered. (Contract price minus the amount saved by non-performance)
e. UCC contract formation
f. Anticipatory repudiation
g. Lost volume seller
h. Sellers right on anticipatory repudiation--the damages that can be recovered.
2. CPLR & Torts Question
a. Personal jurisdiction over a non-domiciliary in a defamation case
b. Motion to dismiss
c. Waived the right to make the motion, when the defense was not raised in the answer or the initial motions filed.
d. Defamation against a public figure (prosecutor)--malice
e. SOL for defamation--tolling when no personal jurisdiction
3. Wills & Trusts
a. Wills definition
b. Execution of will (not relevant)
c. Interested witness rule
d. Incorporation by reference (trust not in existence when the will was executed)
e. Pourover trust
f. Reconveyance of property (the property was given to daughter, so that she will later convey the same to his son, to defraud the creditors)
g. Parol evidence rule (since the son filed for a court order to reconvey the property once his credit issues were over)
h. Exception-condition precedent (however, the condition precedent is for the purpose of defrauding the creditors, so it is against public policy--hence court will not admit the oral agreement to reconvey.)
i. Trust formation (when the trust was created, there was no trust property)
4. Domestic Relations & Corporations
a.Common law marriage (spouses never married, but lived as husband and wife in State X) Full faith and credit to the law of the sister state.
b. Grounds for divorce
c. No fault divorce: 6 months requirement
d. Equitable distribution
e. Separate property
f. Marital property
g. Increase in value of separate property
h. Shareholders derivative actions
i. Director who is also a shareholder brings suit for dissolution of the corporation.
j. Corporation wants to buy back his shares.
5. Criminal Law & Procedure
a. Burglary 3rd degree (1st degree definition was given in the essay- did not fulfill the elements of 1st degree)
b. Warrant exception for search
c. Consent to search- who can consent- live-in girlfriend consented.
d. Stolen goods in the plain view
c. Probable cause for arrest- arrest without warrant
f. 4th Amendment
Thanks, again, to the alumnus who sent us this list!
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MCG
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