CT Bar Contracts & Torts 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the UCC, a merchant's firm offer is irrevocable for up to how long without consideration?
- 30 days
- 60 days
- 90 days (Correct answer)
- 6 months
Correct answer: 90 days
UCC § 2-205 makes a signed merchant's firm offer irrevocable for the stated period or, if no period is stated, for a reasonable time not exceeding 3 months (90 days).
Question 2: A seller contracts to deliver 500 widgets but delivers only 490. The buyer rejects the entire shipment. Which doctrine governs the buyer's right to reject?
- Substantial performance
- Perfect tender rule (Correct answer)
- Material breach doctrine
- Anticipatory repudiation
Correct answer: Perfect tender rule
Under the UCC's perfect tender rule (§ 2-601), the buyer may reject goods if they fail in any respect to conform to the contract.
Question 3: In a negligence action, the 'but-for' test is used to establish:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty
- Actual causation (Correct answer)
- Proximate causation
Correct answer: Actual causation
The 'but-for' test determines actual (factual) causation — whether the harm would not have occurred but for the defendant's negligent act.
Question 4: A contractor completes 95% of a home renovation but abandons the remaining work. Under Connecticut law, the homeowner owes the contractor:
- Nothing, because there was no full performance
- The contract price minus the cost to complete (Correct answer)
- The full contract price as liquidated damages
- Only the value of materials supplied
Correct answer: The contract price minus the cost to complete
Under the substantial performance doctrine, the contractor can recover the contract price less damages caused by the incomplete performance.
Question 5: Which element distinguishes battery from assault?
- Intent to cause harm
- Actual harmful or offensive contact (Correct answer)
- Apprehension of imminent contact
- Lack of consent
Correct answer: Actual harmful or offensive contact
Battery requires actual harmful or offensive contact, while assault requires only the victim's apprehension of such imminent contact.
Question 6: A landowner in Connecticut hires an independent contractor to perform blasting work. A bystander is injured by the blast. The landowner is most likely:
- Not liable because the contractor is independent
- Liable under respondeat superior
- Liable because blasting is an inherently dangerous activity (Correct answer)
- Liable only if the landowner was negligent in hiring
Correct answer: Liable because blasting is an inherently dangerous activity
Inherently dangerous (ultrahazardous) activities impose non-delegable duties on the hiring party, making them vicariously liable regardless of independent contractor status.
Question 7: Under the parol evidence rule, which of the following IS admissible to vary the terms of a fully integrated written contract?
- Prior oral agreements contradicting the writing
- Contemporaneous oral agreements on the same subject
- Evidence of fraud in the inducement (Correct answer)
- Prior written negotiations that contradict the final terms
Correct answer: Evidence of fraud in the inducement
Fraud in the inducement is an exception to the parol evidence rule and is always admissible because it attacks the validity of the contract itself.
CT Bar Contracts & Torts 2
Under the UCC, a merchant's firm offer is irrevocable for up to how long without consideration?