Monday, April 19, 2010
Hypothetical
Here's a hypothetical for you:
Let's say you are a director of a student association. You realize that your current group of student legislators (let's say there are 76 of them) don't know what they are doing. They cannot pass their legislation, and they are fudging up everything they touch. You send them a harsh letter telling them that they need to get their act together.
(1) Does the letter establish the director had notice that the student government was not legally enacting bills?
(2) If so, is that sufficient to show that the director knew she was violating Regents policy by spending money that had not been approved by the students?
There may be an exam on this material.
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You're missing a step. The director has a duty to not spend money when she knows the spending was not approved by the students.
ReplyDeleteSome assumptions that need clarification:
ReplyDelete(1) Does the director have any separate power to determine whether bills are legally enacted? Just because the director believes no legal enactments occurred doesn't mean she has the power to find that.
(2) Again, you're presupposing the director has an independent duty and ability to decide these issues for the student government. If the student government tells her, "yep, legally enacted," isn't that reliable enough?
Good questions, Anony:
ReplyDeleteDuty of good faith rules here. The director has a duty not to approve expenses unless they have also been approved by the student government. The student government has a clear process by which a bill becomes "approved." If the director has no reason to know what that process is, and they tell her "yep, legally enacted," she could claim that she was executing her duties in good faith.
If she knows or has reason to know that the budget was not approved by the students, either because she is intimately familiar with the rules, or has held herself out as an authority on the process, or has signaled knowledge of the process in some other manner (writing a letter, say), then she has a duty to not wink back at the student government and spend money that hasn't been legally approved.
Corinna Cohn. Get a real job or find a hobby. Leave the ASUN alone. Grow up.
ReplyDelete