Rachel Cahoon

Assignment #1
2/5/19
Edward Wachter
Case 1-2
Pg. 20

1. The plaintiff, Arthur Rabe, is suing Xavier Sanchez, the defendant for a breach in a contract they made. In
this contract, Sanchez promised he would sell a Van Gogh painting to Rabe for $150,000. Sanchez did not
follow through with the contract and was even going to pass off a copy of Van Gogh’s painting as an
original.

2. It is possible that in this situation, the parties would have included an arbitration clause in their contract, so
that in case of a dispute, they would keep it out of the courts. Even if their contract didn’t include an
arbitration clause, I think it would be the best to settle a case like this with arbitration.

3. Due to the amount of money and personal property involved, I think it would be best to settle this case with
an outside party involved. With breaches in contract, it may be a bit more difficult to get the parties
involved to come to an agreement by themselves. Neutral third parties usually help to offer up a solution
that will be the most fair and beneficial for both parties involved.

4. This method of alternative dispute resolution is called arbitration. With this method, you start with two
people or parties who disagree with each other where one party decides to bring up a lawsuit against the
other party. Instead of taking the other person to court, or trial, the parties decide to settle their
disagreement out of court. They present their problem to a third party, who is neutral in the disagreement.
The third party then presents a solution to the two parties involved that they can choose to use or not use.

5. One advantage to settling this case using arbitration instead of litigation also falls under the rules of
voidable contracts. Since Sanchez was never going to sell Rabe a real Van Gogh painting, Rabe entered
into the contract under fraudulent conditions, which makes the contract voidable at the option of Rabe, the
defrauded party. Since the contract can so easily be voidable, it would be much simpler for an attorney or
outside party to recognize that this was a voidable contract and leave it at that. Another advantage to using
arbitration in this case instead of litigation, and as is the case many times, is the amount of money involved.
Bringing any sort of civil case to court takes a long time and also incurs many legal fees for those involved.
In the end, the parties may end up spending more to bring their case before a judge than they intended to and
their legal fees may be more than whatever they will receive as a remedy. Another advantage to using
arbitration instead of litigation is the result of the arbitration. The parties involved may decide that the
arbitrator’s decision may be non-binding. Meaning that if either of the parties did not like the decision the
arbitrator makes, the parties involved could choose to continue pursuing a formal lawsuit. This freedom
just gives more chances to the parties involved to explore their options and find the best solution.
 1 Is your case summary well written, clear and understandable? (50 points)
2 Did you select an alternative dispute resolution method from Chapter 3? (50 points)
3 Is your rationale clearly written, does your rationale support the method selected and do you
briefly explain the facts of the case so the reader understands your rationale? (50 points)
4 Is your definition of this alternative dispute resolution method stated in layman’s terms and is
your discussion of the advantages of this method accurate? (50 points)
5 Is your discussion of the advantages well written and dose it show that you understand the
differences between this ADR method and litigation? (50 points)
6 Are all of the sections of the assignment discussed as required in separately numbered
paragraphs and did you follow the assignment format requirements? (50 points)