Episode 37

"You had your materials stolen?"

Han Seol's eyes widened.

"Yeah. Or, more accurately, I let them get stolen."

"......You let them get stolen?"

An answer that sounded puzzled came back.

After our meeting in the lounge, I had firmly told everyone around me to always carry their important books and materials with them or keep them at home.

So, it wasn't strange for them to react like this when I, of all people, said that I had had something stolen.

"Since I still have the originals, it's not like I'm suffering any real damage."

"It's a relief that's the case."

"Now, all I have to do is wait."

According to the original story, there were still about two days before Shin Seo-joon would begin to solve the problem.

Before then, there would definitely be an opportunity to catch the culprit's tail.

'There's a high chance that the showdown will be today......'

Right now, the poor prey that had bitten the poisoned bait was just waiting for the meal to digest, without knowing anything.

"Seriously, what are you thinking?"

Seeing me take out my original notes and start studying, comparing them to Minmae's book as if nothing had happened, Han Seol let out a small sigh.

* * *

The incident occurred during Professor Park Soo-geun's Civil Law I class.

"Well then, we'll end the lecture on unauthorized agency and apparent agency here. That means we've finished the content for the midterm exam. Does anyone have any questions?"

"I'm Yoo Tae-woon, Professor."

"Yes, what were you curious about?"

Professor Park Soo-geun, who had always progressed quickly, received a question, and Yoo Tae-woon raised his hand.

"We still have one more class before the exam, so will that day be for the exam content......"

"Ah, don't worry. We'll have class, but it won't be included in the midterm exam."

At those words, the students' faces also brightened.

It was a story that was like putting the cart before the horse, to be honest.

The fact that it wasn't included in the midterm exam meant that it would soon be included in the final exam.

Even if they were a little more comfortable now, it wasn't like the work they had to do was disappearing.

But for law school students who were facing a new and unfamiliar enemy called law for the first time, the sound of reducing the burden in the present was more welcome.

The first semester of the first year, where everything was new and confusing.

Just adapting was not an easy task.

"Does anyone else have any questions? Good. Then......"

Professor Park Soo-geun looked at his watch and began to speak.

There were still 15 minutes left until the class was officially over.

The students knew instinctively.

Ah, 'that time' had come again.

"I've received all of your questions, so now it's my turn to ask the questions, right?"

As Professor Park Soo-geun operated his laptop, the lecture PPT that was on the screen flipped through.

Soon, a page that said 'Practice Problems' appeared.

"Is there anyone who wants to solve this problem?"

If Professor Jang Yong-hwan's class had 'assignment points,' Professor Park Soo-geun's class had 'attitude points.'

The total was 10 points.

The evaluation method was simple. Every time a lecture on each part ended, he would reveal practice problems and give students an opportunity to solve them.

And based on the accumulated number of participations and the results of the solutions by the end of the semester, he would rank them.

The 1st to 5th place students would get 10 points, the 6th to 10th place students would get 9 points......

It was a structure where points were given differentially according to the ranking, in a way.

If you looked at it this way, it seemed like it was good to just raise your hand and step forward no matter what. But it wasn't just like that.

If you gave the correct solution, it would be recognized as a participation, but if you gave a wrong solution, it would actually deduct your recorded participation count by one.

-To get the solution to the content that I had just taught wrong, it means that you weren't focused on the lecture, right?

Therefore, it was only natural that you would receive a disadvantage in the 'attitude' points, that was Professor Park Soo-geun's explanation.

In the end, you couldn't just rashly raise your hand without a considerable amount of confidence.

In reality, the students who volunteered to solve the problems at this time, with the midterm exams approaching, had become almost fixed.

Shin Seo-joon, Han Seol, and a few other top students, and me.

But today, things were a little different.

"Professor, I'll try it."

"I also want to try solving it!"

"Me too......"

There were quite a few volunteers who normally didn't raise their hands.

'Oho.'

Of course, there could be various reasons.

Now that half of the semester had already passed, they might have calculated that they had to participate quickly to make up for their points.

Or, since the midterm exam was approaching, they were all probably more prepared than usual, so they might have volunteered with a little more confidence.

'But...... there might also be people who have other reasons, mixed in.'

I carefully observed each of the people who raised their hands.

Most of them were unfamiliar faces, but a few familiar faces also stood out.

Yoo Tae-woon and Kim Seung-pil also volunteered to solve the problems today, and I could also see several mid-to-lower-ranked students who had appeared in other episodes of the original story.

Seo Hee-jin, who had been crying in the lounge, saying that her books were gone, also cautiously raised her hand.

And one more person.

"P, Professor. I also want to try solving it."

'Oh, it's Bae Hyun-joong?'

Bae Hyun-joong, who had been thoroughly humiliated by me, also hesitated and raised his hand late.

He had been walking around quietly after that, being dispirited and not causing any other accidents, so I had even forgotten about his existence.

In any case, since he was a person of interest, I decided to pay attention to him.

However, Bae Hyun-joong didn't get his chance to present right away.

"Okay. This problem, let's have Park Young-hoon solve it."

"Yes, Professor!"

Another student who had stepped forward in a brisk attitude glanced at the problem on the PPT and gave an explanation.

"This is a question related to the scope of third parties protected from the ratification of unauthorized agency according to Article 133 of the Civil Act."

After pointing out a few basic issues, Park Young-hoon gave a clean conclusion.

"Although Byung is a transferee of the claim, since they have not fulfilled the requirements for assertion, they are not included in the third parties protected by Article 133. Therefore, Eul acquires the claim according to the retroactive effect of the ratification."

I carefully went through the development of the logic and the evidence that Park Young-hoon had given in my head. There weren't any parts that were particularly wrong. The content was a bit lacking, but that was unavoidable since it was intertwined with the concept of claim transfer that we hadn't yet learned.

'Hmm, okay. Pass.'

"That was a good solution. You can go back."

"Thank you!"

Professor Park Soo-geun sent Park Young-hoon back and flipped the PPT to the next page. Then, another problem appeared on the screen.

"This time, let's have, yes. Bae Hyun-joong solve it."

"Yes. Uh, okay......"

Perhaps because he had lost a lot of confidence after that day, Bae Hyun-joong stammered and stood on the podium with a shrunken attitude.

He was so far from the arrogant and presumptuous figure that he had always been, that you couldn't even find a trace of it.

'Was the shock that big? If that's the case, then maybe?'

I focused on his presentation, my eyes flashing.

"Uh, so...... The issue is whether the power of sub-agency can become the basic power of agency for apparent agency of Article 126......"

Although he seemed to be chased by some kind of anxiety, he still continued his explanation step by step.

He pointed out the relationships between the prerequisite concepts, cited the position that the precedents had taken in a factual relationship similar to the problem, and then drew a conclusion.

"Th, therefore...... Only the 20 million won part where the sub-agency act happened is the responsibility of the principal, Gap."

'Hmm. Not bad?'

Although he had lost his confidence, Bae Hyun-joong's solution had actually progressed to a new level compared to what I had seen before.

Especially, it was a solution that showed that he had thought a lot from various angles, so that he wouldn't miss any issues.

'But if that's the case, then it means that it's not you either.'

While I was lost in thought, Professor Park Soo-geun nodded and patted Bae Hyun-joong's shoulder.

"That was a good explanation. Please return to your seat."

"Ye, yes......"

Professor Park Soo-geun flipped the PPT again.

'Oh, this time it's a somewhat complex problem.'

At the same time as I thought that, Professor Park Soo-geun also nodded.

"This is the last problem for today. It's also the most complex problem. Is there anyone who wants to try solving it?"

[Practice Problem 3.]

Gap is a cousin of Eul, and they are close with each other. Gap often acted on behalf of Eul in private transactions such as borrowing money from the bank in Eul's name, after receiving a request from Eul.

Then one day, Gap secretly took Eul's seal and signed a sales contract with Byung, a close friend of his, to purchase Byung's X apartment in Eul's name. Then, Gap withdrew 100 million won from Eul's bank account and paid it to Byung as a down payment.

Gap had heard from Byung that there was a plan to announce a redevelopment project in the area near the X apartment, and so he had done this, being fooled by Byung's instigation that it was a good opportunity to purchase the X apartment secretly and make Eul happy.

However, later in court, Eul and Byung were unable to prove the existence of these facts.

However, right after the sales contract was signed, the area near the X apartment was designated as a development restriction zone.

Due to this, the market price of the X apartment plummeted, and Eul, who had learned of the circumstances, was refusing to pay the intermediary payment and the balance payment of the sales contract.

Problem: When Byung demands the intermediary payment and the balance payment from Eul,

(1) Eul argues that 'I don't know anything about it, and since Gap is the party who signed the contract, I have no responsibility to fulfill the contract.'

(2) Then, Byung argues that this sales contract corresponds to 'apparent agency'.

(3) Then, Byung argues that if apparent agency isn't established, then Gap must bear the 'liability of an unauthorized agent' based on Article 135 of the Civil Act.

Discuss the validity of each argument. (40 points)

'......They're asking for a lot.'

Since this wasn't a real exam, there was no meaning in the 40 points that were written there.

Even so, the reason why it was marked was to tell them that it was a major problem with more than one or two issues to cover.

As if they had become intimidated by it, someone mumbled.

"Ugh, this is a bit much."

Indeed, even the students who had been raising their hands quickly seemed to be hesitating this time.

That was because, even if there were a lot of things they were being asked, it wasn't like they were getting more participation points than the other problems.

Rather, there were just more corners to get wrong, so the possibility of suffering a loss had only increased.

'Hmm, is this not going to work?'

In fact, there was a reason why I was paying attention to the students' presentations.

The notes that I had had stolen yesterday, or rather, the notes that I had let get stolen.

They contained the practice problems that Professor Park Soo-geun would reveal today, and the answers to them.

A long time ago, Professor Park Soo-geun had said that he had his own rules when creating exam questions.

It was that he only created them from the mock exams for the past three years of the bar exam.

Similarly, there was a rule for the practice problems that he brought to class like this.

Before becoming a law school professor, Professor Park Soo-geun had been a famous instructor for the bar exam in the cram school district, and during that time, he had released a set of creative concept-checking problem books under his name.

Unfortunately, this creative problem book was rejected by the market.

The reason was that from the perspective of the test-takers, there was already a mountain of things to study by just looking at the past exam questions, so they didn't have the leeway to buy and solve creative problems.

In the end, this ambitious masterpiece was discontinued after a short time and disappeared from everyone's memory.

All of Professor Park Soo-geun's practice problems for presentations were all taken from that book.

It seemed that he had a special attachment to it, as if it was his own child.

I knew this, so I had extracted the main issues of the problems that corresponded to the exam range from the book and added them to the materials that the culprit had taken, along with explanations.

I had even kindly added a subtitle that said 'Civil Law I Concept-Checking Examples'.

'However...... I did plant one trap in each one.'

I had deliberately mixed in one wrong point in each issue.

For example, when citing precedents, I would write the precedent number and the overall content the same, but only change the conclusion slightly to make it wrong.

If it was a culprit who had studied using my materials, I thought, they wouldn't be able to just stand by when they saw that a lot of issues that they knew were appearing during the presentation.

They were people who were desperate for grades to the point that they would steal other people's materials, and they were also people who weren't confident in their own skills, so that they had to do that.

Wouldn't it be difficult for them to just watch this golden opportunity pass by?

Therefore, there was definitely a possibility that someone who was speaking today would spit out the nonsense that I had mixed in.

'But it's still just a possibility.'

It seemed like the culprit hadn't appeared yet.

At least, there wasn't anyone who was spewing the ridiculous nonsense that I had mixed in.

I had personally been expecting Bae Hyun-joong to be the culprit, but it seemed that it wasn't him.

Perhaps because they were intimidated by the force of Practice Problem 3, no one was raising their hands anymore.

The students who normally presented well had already earned a lot of points, so it seemed that they weren't going to participate.

It was fine.

Even if it wasn't about Civil Law I, there were a lot of other traps hidden in the materials, and there were still a few more opportunities to use them.

Now wasn't the time to be impatient, but the time to hold my breath and wait for the other party's mistake.

It was at the moment that I had thought that and was about to turn my eyes away from the podium.

"Professor. I'll try it."

"Oh, good. What's your name?"

Someone raised their hand and stood up from their seat.

"It's Seo Hee-jin, Professor."

The reason why I had stepped into this incident.

Seo Hee-jin, the younger sister of the president of the Property Law Academic Society.