16

This is a follow up question to this HNQ question from academia.

Suppose a student S posts an assignment for school/university/... on a freelancer website. A faculty member F sees this and agrees to provide a solution to the assignment for a price x.

Legally, imho, the contract that S and F enter is valid. S provides the price x, F provides the solution.

However, F decides to provide a solution that is uniquely identifiable, thereby knowingly sabotaging their solution.

The student S turns in the solution, F identifies it and therefore F fails S and takes disciplinary action for cheating.

F returns the money to S later and was always going to do so.

However, F and S had a contract. I assume F is breaching the contract to provide a "valid" solution by providing a solution they know will not do what the student wants it to do, even if it looks like it would.

Let's take US law for reference though I suppose it would be more or less the same in many jurisdictions.

Is F liable for the breach of contract and what possible damages could they be liable for? Would it be a realistic scenario that the student sues F for getting them thrown out of the school if that happens and gets a compensation for that? Or in other words, apart from probably beeing ethical, is it legal to place a trap for the student?

DonQuiKong
  • 292
  • 3
  • 15

2 Answers2

5

The contract is almost certainly void as it is against public policy. Enabling a student to cheat in not in the public interest.

Dale M
  • 237,717
  • 18
  • 273
  • 546
-3

Is F liable for the breach of contract and what possible damages could they be liable for?

No. F would not be liable. Besides considerations of public policy, the freelance contract is hardly cognizable because S premised it on his inherent lack of fair dealing toward F: It is foreseeable that S would not have entered the freelance contract with F had S realized that the counterparty is precisely F.

Moreover, in this scenario there are three preexisting contracts between S, F, and the school: each S and F has different contract with the school, and likewise there is a student-instructor contract between S and F. By resorting to the freelancer website, S is violating the covenant of good faith and fair dealing that is presumed/prerequisite in all these three preexisting contracts.

Treating the freelance contract as if it were a valid one would lead to the absurd outcome of forcing a breach of the other preexisting contracts: the student is defrauding the school's credentialing system, and the teacher would defraud its duty of transparency toward the university.

is it legal to place a trap for the student?

Yes, at least in the scenario you describe, because F did not violate any laws (hacking, breaking in, identity theft, extortion, etc.) in his efforts to evidence S's generalized lack of good faith and fair dealing.

Iñaki Viggers
  • 45,677
  • 4
  • 72
  • 96