¶ … Lewis applied to college based on the promise of his application being assessed based on "scholarship, character and motivation" and this was in addition to "academic achievement". Upon reviewing the details further, Sam later found realized that non-academic factors were included and sued on the grounds that the contract was violated.
Rule
The rule to be assessed here is whether there was a contract and, whether verbal or written, whether the contract was violated.
At the end of the day, it is going to come down to what was said, what was not said and what was actually done. Given that, here is what seemingly happened:
• There was not a written contract in the sense that there was not a distinct offer, consideration and acceptance. However, the school can be held to what was in the bulletin
• The bulletin quite clearly states that they look at scholarship, character and motivation in addition to academic achievement
• There is no mention that non-academic achievements would not be looked at. In fact, the contrary is true.
• Since Sam had no reasonable expectation to believe that non-academic issues would not be used, he thus has no basis, for the most part, to sue on those grounds
• There are exceptions to the above. If Sam could prove that the "non-academic" factors included things like
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