The BUSKLAW Newsletter

  A recent decision out of the U.S. District Court (Judge David Hurd) for the Northern District of New York, Ford, et al v. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , examines the consequences of an educational institution's pandemic-induced failure to honor its promises for in-person, campus-centered instruction. Plaintiffs are students of Rensselaer Polytechnic  of Troy, NY ("RPI"). RPI markets itself as providing a unique educational experience through intense campus-based instruction, mandating that all first and second-year students live on campus and even spend the summer between their second and third years on campus "to afford more meaningful interaction with RPI's professors." When the Covid pandemic caused RPI to replace on-campus instruction with on-line learning and shut down all campus activities, Plaintiffs sued RPI for damages resulting from the alleged lesser value of their remote education. RPI asked the Court to dismiss their claims. The resulting ...

It has been called black gold and Texas tea. It  can make hillbillies rich enough to move to a Beverly Hills mansion.  If you own some acreage, you might have it and not know it. In the early 1900s, speculators (colorfully called "wildcatters") would look for it and if found, they often became today's equivalent of Job and Gates. And Michigan had it in abundance.   We are talking about crude oil. Even with market fluctuations and oil's effect on global warming, you can still make some money having it extracted from your land. Just ask the Allens of Pennsylvania, who had high hopes when the SWEPI company came calling to look for oil on their property. So the Allens signed SWEPI's mineral rights lease that stated in part: [This Agreement] is made on the condition that within 60 days from the Effective Date of this lease, [SWEPI] shall pay to [Allens] the sum of $2,000 per acre for the first year. The 60 days came and went and SWEPI didn't pay a dime ...