Hearsay applies to when you say, “My friend said this, this, and this”… and the friend is not present in court to verify that. If your instructor is sitting in front of you, and you claim that he said something, then it’s not hearsay, since he’s there to either confirm or deny the alleged comments.
What it would likely turn into is a matter of “our word against his”, and you’d likely need an impartial witness or two to verify the statements he made. That is all if it went to court. I think the threat would be good enough, as I’m sure the school doesn’t want to have the publicity. If it does, then go to the media. You’ll make a few bucks there.
I’m not a NY lawyer though, nor a lawyer anywhere else. I’d recommend consulting one.
Having said all that… who’s to say he chose your work? What’s stopping him from saying, “I didn’t like what they presented to me.” Is he using your work? Only then do you have a case.
Navid is right. Don’t just present him with a lawsuit one day… try to work out something first. Let’s be honest… $1,000/hr is a bit unreasonable to expect (as DC Dalton mentioned). Whether he said it or not, you’d be much better off being reasonable and accepting something else.
You might win, but at what cost? I’d be inclined to accept a few hundred each ($750 maybe) and a grade break. $750 for 15 hours’ work is still good money ($50/hr).
Again, it’s up to you. See what you can get, but I wouldn’t take it to court.
I think you’re being greedy. I highly doubt you’re worth anywhere near a grand an hour, much less with work you produced at 8 am, after not sleeping 20 hours. Take the grading break and spend the time you would otherwise devote to studying your butt of for that final by going out and having fun.
Man, going against a professor? You do realise he’ll probably get a professor of law to defend him if you take him to court right? You do realise you probably don’t have what it takes to go up against that? And you do realise you’re porbably getting your **** raped 2 ways if you take it to court?
Honestly, this whole thing of a professor saying to his class to make a project for $15k sounds like a bloody awesome JOKE. Just realise what the hell you’re asking for - for $15k, you can hire a professional with a bachelor’s degree in computer science FOR 3 MONTHS! In my country, which is in the European Union, I could get a programmer with a bachelor’s for $15k for a whole year. You, a college freshman, are asking that much for a single night?
Welcome to the real world, write it off as experience, maybe ask for $1k of compensation and explain how that is justified, definately ask for an A in the class.
Honestly, even having signed paperwork doesn’t neccessarily mean you’ll win in court.
Back in my day, if my lecturer had pulled a prank like that on me, I’d have groaned a little, called him a ****, but generally made light of the fact that he’d put one over on me and basically be a little embarassed that I fell for it in the first place. I’d then probably gone down the pub with him, made him buy me a few drinks and would have certainly made him aware of the fact that he owed me one.
These days it seems, we’re talking law suits and possibly the lecturer losing his job. And I really can’t see your remaining days at college being a particularly ‘smooth’ experience if you do persue this.
Getting a teacher in **** is a bad idea, I had to leave school for it. Even if it ain’t your fault the teacher will make jokes about you in class in front of other pupils etc. Then if the headteacher comes in and asks the teacher who say owed you $15, 000 the teacher would say I never said this did I class and most would say no. Class this as a mistake imo!
I have to chime in about the rates, given the last couple of posts - he offered $15,000 for a job to be done with a ridiculous deadline, and you managed it. Anyone who questions the worth of that should try entering a design/development agency at 17:00 and get them to do 30 man-hours (there were two of them doing this) work before 08:00 the next day - good luck getting that for less than $500/man-hour. Payment for work is not all about the end product, it’s about the circumstances too.
That’s all a moot point with me anyway - he offered x amount for x product and he got x product, therefore he owes x amount. It doesn’t matter if x amount is $15,000, $15,000,000 or a bag of peanuts, there was an agreement and you held up your end. He is morally obliged to hold up his end, the question is only whether or not he will do so, and if not the question becomes is he legally obliged.
He won’t have to, he’ll probably go to his buddy professor Law who is seated in the room across, and they’ll collectively toast this guy in court and probably turn him into the laughing stock of the whole university. Soon taking professor pranks too seriously and then trying to sue will be called “Pulling an CLKeenan”.
“Students, I’ll give you $5000 if you manage to stand on one leg for 15 hours during the night.”
“No problem doc, can I pull an CLKeenan on you afterwards?”
“Yeah, sure.”
No but seriously man, I know you were all hyped up about getting $15,000… but I really think you should realise who you’re going against and settle for an A and a six pack of beer.
I already have the support of other highly ranked professors at the institute. So dont even bother saying I’ll be rediculed by them.
I think it would be best for the university to settle this outside of a lawsuit. They wouldnt want this getting out, not to mention the professor might lose his job. Not many of his colleagues are too fond of him anyway.
It may have been just a “prank” but I think you’ve got a legitimate case. There were two cases here where radio stations prank called people telling them they won certain items. One was a Hummer (which they tried to pawn off a radio controlled car) and the other was a “hundred grand” (where they tried to give a candy bar).
Both people sued, stating verbal contracts were made when they were called and told they won the items. Both won.
It all came down to what they implied to the recipients. The recipients truly believed they were winning big prizes and that was what the radio stations wanted. It was clear they didn’t elaborate on purpose, and it cost them.
I think you should push this. I don’t know if you’ll get $15k out of it, but maybe you get some attention and settle for a few $K each. But don’t just let it go…
Thank goodness someone has the sense to point this out! It really doesn’t matter how long it took the students to produce the work as long as it achieves what was required and from what I have read, it went beyond what the profesor expected.
If I do an hour of coding that will save a company’s employess 5 minutes of work every hour that equates to a hell of a lot of savings and benefits for the company, especially if they have a lot of employees. I would certainly ensure I charge a high amount to justify my work.
If the professor was only joking, he should have stated that when he talked with the students for 45 minutes. Arguably the students should have ensured the agreement before leaving to start the work.
If something sounds too good to be true then it usually is - we all wish we could earn $15k for one night’s work but as my name isn’t Bill Gates then I’m resigned to the fact that its not going to happen. There’s no doubt you got taken advantage of because you’re hard-working and ambitious and the professor should be ashamed of himself. But in the real world perhaps a simple complaint to the Dean resulting in a apology from the Professor is a more appropriate outcome. He doesn’t have your work so he can’t profit on it. It could be worse - you could have spend 15 weeks on it!
From what I understand from my friends that are lawyers it’s that it’s very difficult to have a contract at all that’s sucessfully binding. Contract disputes can take years. Basically the gist was that you should try and work things out and that it’s always better not to have the dispute in the first place. So can it be binding? Yes. Does it matter when you weigh the pros and cons? It depends. A lot of times if these things are taken to court, everyone is the loser.
This reminds me of the case where this man or woman sued Hooters because he/she did some contest, and they told her upon winning he/she would recieve a Toyota, and it was all verbal. Then when he/she won, they took him outside, and gave him a Toy Yoda. Lol, I don’t know how the case ended but it was interesting.
Either way - Since other professors won’t frown upon you because of it, and since he might even get fired, I say hire a lawyer, or talk to someone experienced and see what they tell you.
I just think that 15,000 sounded to good to be true to begin with.
Whats up with everyone saying that he will loose? If a college kid can take Microsoft to court and win, I think a proffessor wouldn’t stand any better chance.
This reminds me of the case where this man or woman sued Hooters because he/she did some contest, and they told her upon winning he/she would recieve a Toyota, and it was all verbal. Then when he/she won, they took him outside, and gave him a Toy Yoda. Lol, I don’t know how the case ended but it was interesting.
The waitress won in the sense that she settled outside of court for an undisclosed amount but it was stated that it she received an amount that would allow her to go to a toyota dealership and pick out any toyota she wanted.
THere were also cases involved radio pranks for 100 Grand and Hummers that were mentioned before.
^thats a link to the actual court documents for the 100 Grand bar case
Chris, you seem to have phrased that extremely carefully. Despite talking for 45 minutes didn’t you discuss and confirm the $15,000 fee? If you had done I’m sure you would have mentioned it here as part of your evidence. It doesn’t sound as if you asked the obvious question: “So if we complete a business identity and all the other stuff by tomorrow morning you will pay us $15,000, is that correct?”. I mean, why would you NOT ask such a question? And it doesn’t sound like he replied “Yes, I will pay you $15,000 for whatever you produce by tomorrow morning”, otherwise you would have mentioned this explicitly, I’m sure.
The only reason NOT to explicitly discuss the fee that I can think of is because you knew at the time that he had not been serious in offering such an obviously ridiculous sum. A defence lawyer could rip you to shreds in the first five minutes over these obvious points.
And maybe your professor can now sue YOU for alleged libel, misrepresentation and who knows what else once he inevitably reads this thread and finds out what you’re claiming. These things work both ways, and we have only heard one side of the story.
