PROBLEM 1

There are 100 students taking the course Law of Property.

In the course outline (which was given to all students at the start of term), it is clearly stated:

• Course will be assessed by:
  • Coursework assignment (30% overall mark)
  • Hardcopies of the assignment, together with the signed Veriguide certificate must be submitted at the faculty office before 4:00pm on 30^th April.

• The coursework assignment question was distributed to all students in hardcopy and on blackboard on the 30^th January.The Faculty sent an email to all students and posted an announcement on blackboard to inform students that the question was available and reminding them of the deadline.

• The course teacher sent an email reminder and posted an announcement on Blackboard on 29^th April to remind all students of the deadline.

• All of the students submitted their assignment according to the rules by the deadline except for the following cases below.

Considering the principles of common law & equity, how would you deal with the following scenarios?

1. Billy is a student on the course. He submitted both his assignment & Veriguide certificate at 4:01pm.

1. Eleanor is a student on the course. She submitted her assignment & Veriguide certificate at 4:03 pm.

1. Freddie is a student on the course. She submitted her assignment & Veriguide certificate at 4:05pm.

1. Veronica is a student on the course. She submitted her assignment & Veriguide certificate at 5:05pm.

1. Cassie is a student on the course. She submitted her assignment at 3:59pm on 7^th May.

1. Jennifer is a student on the course. She had been working very hard on the assignment every day since it was released. On the afternoon of 30^th April, she left her house in Hung Hom at 2pm in order to get to the Faculty on time to hand in her assignment.

Unfortunately there was a large traffic delay due to a broken water main pipe on the way. Jennifer's bus was stuck and the MTR was delayed. Jennifer arrived at the faculty at 4:02pm and was not able to submit her assignment in time.

1. Roger is student on the course. On the 30^th April, he emailed the course teacher at 3:30pm and requested "more time" as he would not be able to finish the assignment on time. No other reason was given.

1. Amy is a student on the course. On the 30^th April, she arrived at the computer lab at 3:30pm to upload & print out her Veriguide certificate for her assignment for submission. Unfortunately due to computer and printer difficulty, she could not get the certificate printed. Facing the deadline, she submitted her hardcopy (without Veriguide certificate) at 3:56 and then went back to fix her computer problems and later submitted her Veriguide certificate at 4:40pm.

1. Bobby is a student on the course. On 5^th May, he emailed a softcopy of the assignment to the Faculty office. Bobby apologized and explained that he was in Thailand all of last week and only just returned to Hong Kong last night. He says that he was unable to access internet from his hotel in Thailand so he had to wait until he returned to Hong Kong to submit the assignment.

PROBLEM 2

(Continued from the facts of Problem 1)

The other 70% of the marks in the Law of Property is assessed by way of a 2 hour in class final. The exam was scheduled for 4^th June at 2:30pm-4:30pm.

The authorized materials are:

• 10 paper of A4 paper which students can write anything they choose on either side.
• Usual university rules on authorized materials apply.

1. You are the exam invigilator. Billy is a student on the course. He arrived at the exam venue at 3:01pm. He argues that it is essential for him to enter because his 1^st assignment mark is already in great jeopardy (see above).

1. Georgina is a student on the course. On the morning of the 4^th December, she was doing some last minute studying at home when she heard a scream from her grandfather in the kitchen. Her grandfather had suffered a serious cut while cooking. Since there was nobody else available, Georgina rushed her grandfather to the hospital for treatment. She was able to leave the emergency room at 1:30pm and rushed home to get her exam materials. She goes to take the exam and receives a B+.

She now argues that she was in a nervous state of distress during the exam and if it had not been for the emergency at home, she would have scored higher. She now argues that her mark should be increased to an A- instead.

1. Henry is a student on the course. He arrives at the exam on time and settles into his desk. After the instructions are read and the exam has begun, the invigilator checks everybody's authorized materials. Henry has brought 20 pages of A4 paper. Some pages are only half written on. The materials are confiscated. Henry argues that if you add up the total space written, it will add up to 10 pages of A4 and he did not receive an advantage. He also argues that he should have been allowed to choose which pages to keep instead of having all pages confiscated.

1. Linda is a year 2 student on the course. She duly takes the exam and receives a B. Now that she sees how her overall grades have progressed, she decides she wants to appeal a C that she received in a different course, Legal Systems, back from her 1^st semester from year 1.