I Became a Law School Genius

Chapter 9

『 Translator – Divinity 』

“Case 2001da66369.”

The room buzzed at the sudden mention of the case number.

“When a loan is transferred to a corporation’s account based on a void legal act, the corporation’s ‘unjust enrichment’ is established. This doesn’t change even if someone immediately withdraws the loan afterwards. In other words, in this scenario, ‘B’ can also claim ‘unjust enrichment’ against ‘A’ under Article 741 of the Civil Act.”

At my point, everyone hurriedly took out their law books.

• Article 741 of the Civil Act (Unjust Enrichment) A person who, without legal cause, obtains a benefit from another person’s property or labor and thereby causes damage to that person, shall return such benefit.

“W-what does that even mean! The damage ‘B’ suffered is still 500 million won, so the amount they can get back is the same anyway!”

Bae Hyun-jung finally dropped the honorifics even in front of the professor.

That’s how flustered he was.

“No. It’s not the same.”

And I easily refuted his claim.

“If you claim tort liability, ‘B’ has to do something called comparative negligence for their own negligence.”

“Oh, oh no…!”

“Article 396 of the Civil Act. Comparative Negligence. In a claim for damages due to non-performance of an obligation, if the creditor is also negligent, the court shall take this into account when determining liability and the amount. Article 764 of the Civil Act. Application of Provisions. Article 396 also applies to tort liability.”

Simply put, it’s like this:

That guy did something bad to me.

So I suffered damage.

But thinking about it, there was a part of that damage that occurred due to my own mistake.

In this case, the concept of comparative negligence allows for deducting the amount corresponding to my mistake, or negligence, from the amount of damages claimed.

“Although ‘B’ bank can claim tort liability of the corporation because their negligence wasn’t gross negligence, they were still negligent, so this needs to be offset, and that inevitably reduces the amount they can claim. On the other hand, this doesn’t happen if they claim unjust enrichment.”

In conclusion, the amount of money ‘B’ can recover changes depending on the grounds for the claim.

Claiming unjust enrichment under Article 741 is more beneficial to the client ‘B’ than claiming tort liability under Article 35.

“Do you need further explanation, Professor?”

I passed the baton to Professor Park Soo-geun.

“…What’s written on the blackboard?”

“Two lines to write the requirements for unjust enrichment and the precedent that allows it. One line to say that tort liability is also established, but there’s a possibility of comparative negligence. And one line for the conclusion that unjust enrichment should be claimed.”

Of course, if you write an actual answer sheet like that, it would be a disaster.

Examining the tort liability of the corporation is also an important issue, and you need to properly consider the requirements and whether they are met.

If you don’t write it down because it’s obvious, you lose all the points associated with it.

But Bae Hyun-jung would take care of that anyway, wouldn’t he? It was easily predictable just by looking at the amount he wrote on the board.

If I were to refute him anyway, it would be much more impactful to dismantle his entire argument in just three or four lines.

This wasn’t an answer-writing contest or an exam.

It was a presentation.

A presentation was just a battle of who seemed more plausible and who could control the atmosphere.

And at that point, I had won a landslide victory.

“Wow… amazing.”

“Bae Hyun-jung’s explanation of the issues in the corporation part wasn’t bad, but Park Yoo-seung is constructing his logic by smoothly citing the entire Civil Act, including unjust enrichment, which is in the obligations section.”

“Hey, didn’t you say he was the ultimate delinquent of your school?”

“He’s so cool. I guess you have to be able to do that much to become a lawyer…”

The atmosphere changed in an instant.

The murmuring, which had been nothing but unpleasant noise, was now like a hymn for me.

“Okay, quiet. Quiet. Class isn’t over yet.”

Professor Park Soo-geun asked,

“Mr. Park Yoo-seung.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Have you studied for the bar exam before? Like for patent attorney or legal scrivener. Or the court administrative exam… Considering your age, it couldn’t have been the bar exam since it’s been abolished for a while.”

No. I’m a former second-round passer of the bar exam.

Of course, I couldn’t say that.

I shook my head.

It wasn’t a lie since it was true that ‘Park Yoo-seung’ had never prepared for such an exam.

“Perfect. To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult of an issue, but it’s rare for a prospective student to construct an answer by weaving together such a wide range of civil law concepts.”

Professor Park Soo-geun was impressed.

“Adjusting the emphasis by recognizing the nuances of the question was also impressive. This is something that usually takes years of studying for the bar exam to develop…”

The professor smiled and patted my shoulder.

“5 bonus points for Group 10. Group 9… good work. Both of you, return to your seats.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

A clear difference.

A decided victory.

I smirked at Bae Hyun-jung as if to show off, and he, with his face flushed red, trembled and barely managed to squeeze out an answer.

“…Th-thank you…”

***

“Cheers!”

In the evening, after all the classes were over, Han Seol clinked her soju glass against mine at a barbecue restaurant we visited after a long time.

“Are you sure you’re paying?”

“Park Yoo-seung, have you ever seen me go back on my word? Eat, eat.”

Han Seol’s voice was quite excited.

Thanks to being possessed by the delinquent young master of a rich family, I never had to worry about money, but there was no reason to refuse her offer to treat me.

After all, the most delicious meat in the world is the meat someone else buys for you.

“Did you see that guy’s face? It was like his whole world had crumbled.”

Apparently, that Bae Hyun-jung guy had been quite persistent and annoying for a while.

Even when she told him to stop, he wouldn’t listen, caught up in his own delusions.

Therefore, Han Seol felt very refreshed seeing him get his comeuppance today.

“I hate that kind of snob. Dividing people based on their status and openly looking down on those he thinks are beneath him.”

“But didn’t you also tell me not to cause trouble when we first met in the classroom?”

“Hey, that’s different!”

I know.

That Han Seol didn’t mean it in a bad way.

Rather, she would have tried her best to carry even a delinquent like Park Yoo-seung and get good grades together.

Since Park Yoo-seung in the original story was such a waste, the best she could do was to make him stay quiet.

“I’m kidding. Kidding.”

“You scared me! I thought you might have been holding onto that.”

Only then did her furrowed brows relax.

Even in the original story, Han Seol always had a stiff expression and rarely smiled whenever she appeared.

Readers even complained in the comments, saying, “She looks prettier when she smiles, why does she always look so gloomy?”

Suddenly remembering that, I casually said,

“Why don’t you try smiling like that more often? You look much better.”

“…Wh-what, cough, cough!”

Han Seol, who was stuffing meat wraps into her mouth, choked and coughed.

I told you to eat slowly.

I pulled out a few wet tissues and handed them to her.

It was quite funny how she glared at me as if dissatisfied, but still thanked me when she received the tissues.

Just how diligent was she?

“But don’t you have a curfew? Is it okay for you to be eating meat here?”

“…Yeah. It used to be 8 o’clock during undergrad, but since I started law school, my mom extended it to 9.”

“That’s good. Hey, this meat is delicious. You know how to grill meat.”

“Right? When I was the class president, I was called the goddess of the grill at the MT!”

‘This is exactly like the original.’

Han Seol’s mother was what they call a “helicopter mom.”

Since Han Seol’s school days, her mother had tried to manage her schedule down to the minute, and it was still the same now that she was an adult.

She would make Han Seol report on her daily study goals and impose curfews.

It was fortunate that Han Seol was a natural-born honor student; otherwise, this kind of parenting would have made her rebel long ago.

I sympathized with Han Seol as I snatched the meat she had pushed to the edge of the grill and ate it.

Mmm, delicious.

“So,”

Han Seol, who had been eating diligently, began.

“How did you know this time?”

“Know what?”

“That the answer the professor had in mind was unjust enrichment. Since it was a question given after learning about the concept of corporations, it’s easy to focus on that.”

Han Seol confessed that she would have solved it using Article 35 as well.

However, her arguments would have been much richer than Bae Hyun-jung’s, and she would have earned considerable bonus points from that.

But essentially, she wouldn’t have grasped the professor’s true intentions either.

“There were too many additional conditions in the problem. It felt artificial.”

“…Huh?”

“Problems about the relationship between a corporation and its CEO usually come with agency. Article 59, Paragraph 2 even states that agency-related provisions apply to CEOs.”

But what was the problem Park Soo-geun gave like?

It said not to consider whether the CEO’s act was unauthorized agency, not to consider apparent authority, and not to consider abuse of representative power.

Even though each of those was a basic concept and an A-grade issue!

The reason for limiting the scope of examination like that was obvious.

Was it because Park Soo-geun was such an angelic professor? No.

It was because he had a different goal in mind.

“And then, when I read it again, the phrase ‘you are a lawyer’ had a different meaning. Usually, that kind of statement isn’t necessary.”

“…I see, you can approach it that way too.”

Han Seol let out a small exclamation of admiration, then changed her expression and started smirking.

“Well, that was pretty cool. What was it again? ‘The effort to bring the maximum benefit to the client as a lawyer. Have you tried that?'”

“…Hey, stop it!”

I had tried to create a certain atmosphere to make fun of Bae Hyun-jung, but seeing Han Seol imitate me in a comical way, I felt a surge of belated shame.

Han Seol, as if she had found something to tease me about, grinned.

“Wow, I thought you were a lawyer from a movie or drama. I almost gave you a standing ovation, you were so cool.”

“I told you to stop…”

“‘Mr. Bae Hyun-jung~. Is this truly your best~?'”

“Ugh!”

Unable to bear it any longer, I drained my glass. Han Seol refilled it, and after another “cheers,” I emptied that one too.

The alcohol tasted particularly bitter.

‘I should have just stayed quiet. I needlessly tried to create a mood…’

Actually, this problem was relatively easy for me.

First of all, all the important issues were written directly in the law articles.

For me, who still lacked absolute knowledge, problems that allowed me to use the law book as a legal cheat sheet were a godsend.

It would have been much more difficult for me to write an answer like Bae Hyun-jung’s.

To write about the tort liability of a corporation, I would have had to state the criteria for job-relatedness, which isn’t in the law articles, and the keywords of the outward appearance theory.

The length of the answer alone would be different.

The idea of connecting it to ‘unjust enrichment’ wasn’t particularly special either.

In our time, during the bar exam era, 40 or 50-point comprehensive problems in civil law would pop up quite often.

Therefore, no matter what the case was, we had no choice but to develop the habit of examining everything at once, from the establishment of the legal act to the rights that the parties could claim, and even the procedural issues.

Nowadays, since the syllabus is divided into chapters, and exams and presentations are also conducted chapter by chapter, students’ thinking isn’t organically connected.

It’s something everyone does later when they learn everything and start preparing for the bar exam in earnest.

“The case number? How did you know that?”

“That was the case I was looking at five minutes before class.”

I was carefully reading the section on the tort liability of corporations to prepare for class.

Suddenly, I reminisced about how this was often linked to unjust enrichment in the past and flipped through the pages at the back.

There was a familiar case I hadn’t seen in a while, and since I kept looking at it, I memorized it naturally.

Actually, the issues I mentioned during class weren’t all of them.

Whether the party can use both remedies, tort liability and unjust enrichment, or if they have to choose one.

If they can use both, how to handle the overlapping scope, and so on. There were still more points that shouldn’t be missed.

That was the card I was going to play if Professor Park Soo-geun asked for further explanation. Fortunately, he seemed sufficiently impressed with the correct answer and didn’t ask for more.

“You memorized it naturally? That’s amazing in its own way…”

There was nothing more embarrassing than being praised for memorization by this woman.

I shook my head and focused on the meat, and Han Seol, instead of talking further, began to focus her mouth on a more valuable task.

“Oh, that was delicious. I’ll treat you next time.”

“Next time, you say. Do you know how expensive meat is these days?”

We left early to meet Han Seol’s curfew.

Even as she grumbled, her expression as she turned away was very bright.

She must have really enjoyed the meat.

Well, I enjoyed it enough too.

This place is good.

“Now then, I should get going too…”

As the happy feast ended, reality came crashing back in.

Actually, I still had a lot to deal with.

Studying was something I did every day anyway…

The most urgent task at hand was the ghost group member, Lee Ha-ru.

Although I had put Bae Hyun-jung in his place, the snowball he had thrown was still rolling.

If I didn’t want to get hit by the attendance score bomb, I had to catch Lee Ha-ru first.

“It’s Friday today, so I have until the weekend.”

But how do I catch her? Where do I even find her?

Moreover, even if I caught her, how to make her attend every day was another problem.

“That problem child…”