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LAW 102 - FINAL EXAMINATION
FALL 2021 – CRN 30582
PROFESSOR FRIMMER
This examination will consist of two parts. In Part 1, you will
complete an Excel spreadsheet using the information provided. In
Part 2, you will perform legal research and prepare a Powerpoint
presentation to present your conclusions to the Court. Full
instructions are contained in each Part below. Part 1 is worth 30
point and Part 2 is worth 70 points, for a total of 100 points.
PART 1 - EXCEL SPREADSHEET – 30 POINTS – ESTIMATED TIME 1
HOUR
Facts:
John and Mary Smith have decided to purchase their first home
together in Prescott, Arizona. The price for the home is $600,000.
They will be required to put 20% down on the house at the closing, or
$120,000.
They are trying to determine if they can afford the monthly payments
on the mortgage that they will have to take out to complete the home
purchase, and would like to have an amortization schedule to see how
each monthly payment would be applied to interest (deductible for
tax purposes) and to principal reduction over the entire repayment
period of the mortgage.
The mortgage lender that they have decided to use has a great first-
buyer program. The lender will loan them the $480,000. The terms
on the loan are as follows: (1) the interest rate will be 3.5% per year; (2) the payments will be made monthly on the first day of each
month, starting January 1, 2022; and (3) the mortgage will completely
amortize over a 15-year period, starting January 1, 2022, or for 180
months.
John and Mary are using Attorney Janice Jones to assist in closing the
purchase of the home and to apply for the mortgage. They ask
Attorney Jones to prepare the calculations for them.
You are Attorney Jones’ paralegal. Attorney Jones asks you to
prepare an Excel spreadsheet showing the calculations that the
Smiths have requested.
Using the pre-formatted Excel Spreadsheet provided, fill in the
columns using all appropriate formulas to make the calculations.
Since this is not a math quiz, here are some hints:
A. Since the interest rate is annual, you have to divide the rate by
12 in the formula to get the monthly equivalent.
B. You will need to compute the monthly payment using the
formula built into Excel for Payment. That formula is called
=pmt.
C. The formulas for the first line of the spreadsheet are provided to
get you started.
D. Your task is to finish the amortization schedule by showing the
results for each row until the end.
E. If you do it correctly, the loan balance at the end will be “0.”
YOU MUST FILL IN YOUR NAME IN THE HEADER!
WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED, SAVE THE RESULTING SPREADSHEET AND
UPLOAD IT.
PART 2: LEGAL RESEARCH AND POWERPOINT PRESENTATION – 70
POINTS – ESTIMATED TIME 3 HOURS
FACTS:
John and Mary Smith successfully bought the house on the terms
shown in Part 1 above. During 2022, 2023 and 2024, they received
regular bills from the mortgage lender and made all of the payments
on the loan. Starting on January 1, 2025, they did receive a monthly
mortgage bill from the bank. Since they did not receive a bill, they
forgot to make the mortgage payment. A similar thing happened
every month after that for nine (9) years. On January 1, 2034, the
lender finally realized that their computer software had omitted John
and Mary from the monthly billing cycles. The lender sent them a bill
for all of the missed payments, or $383,454.00 (i.e., $3,550,50 each
month for 108 months).
John and Mary are stunned. They don’t have that kind of money
lying around. They make an appointment to see Attorney Janice
Jones, who still employs you as her paralegal. They ask Attorney
Jones whether there is a statute of limitations that applies so that the
bank’s failure to require payments for all those 9 years might bar the
bank from collecting.
Attorney Jones informs the Smiths that legal research will have to be
done and that she will get back to John and Mary. Her preliminary
thought is that Arizona does have a 6-year statute of limitations on
collecting a debt, but she cannot remember whether and to what
extent it applies to mortgage loans.
Attorney Jones assigns you, as her paralegal, to do the research and
present your findings in a polished Powerpoint presentation to present to the clients, and if needed, to the Court, if a lawsuit will
occur.
Meanwhile, Attorney Jones, desiring to stop the lender from taking
immediate collection action or to start foreclosure proceedings,
prepares a letter to the lender denying that John and Mary owe
anything and asserts that the lender is barred by the 6-year statute of
limitations from collecting the entire balance of the mortgage.
The lender wrote back, denying that the statute of limitations applies
at all.
Is Attorney Jones correct or not? Is the lender correct? Is there a
middle ground where each is partially correct?
Do the research to determine whether and to that extent a statute of
limitations applies under Arizona law to this fact situation. You must
identify at least one Arizona Supreme Court case that interprets the
statute of limitations as it applies to credit card debts and one Arizona
Appeal Court case that deals directly with a mortgage loan of this
type.
Then prepare a Powerpoint presentation to state the law and your
conclusions. You may format the Powerpoint presentation any way
you like. The only requirements are:
1. The first slide should have the names of the clients, indicate
that it is from Attorney Janice Jones, that it is prepared by you,
as her paralegal, and that it is protected by attorney-client
privilege.
2. The second slide should concisely state the legal issue and the
facts.
3. After that, the following slides should summarize the law. 4. Finally, there should be a slide with the legal conclusions. If you
determine that there is a partial application of the statute of
limitations that favors the Smiths, identify how much of the loan
they are relieved from paying. Use the spreadsheet you
prepared in Part 1 to get the numbers.
5. YOU MAY USE BULLET POINTS, BUT STILL WRITE IN FULL
SENTENCES. USE PROPER GRAMMER AND DICTION.
GOOD LUCK!!
PROF. FRIMMER