Punk'd in CivPro

Oy... I got cold-called today in CivPro, and my performance was something less than, how you say? Competent.

Today we were talking about Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides for impleader. At the beginning of class, Prof. Vetter threw a hypo at me which involved an issue of whether a defendant being sued by a person injured by a stray shotgun blast could claim, under Rule 14(a), that his damages were indemnified (not to be confused with contributorily liable) by a third party, owing to the fact that there was another hunter in the area. It's not as easy as it sounds. *sarcasm*

Anyways, despite having read the case the night before, I muddled my way through the facts of the hypo, since I didn't really have any idea of what I was doing. I gave a long, meandering, nonsensical B.S. answer, at which point Prof. Vetter stopped me and said: "So... in other words, you don't know." Then he turned to someone else. Haha ouch. Minus 12 hit points from Chris' ego.

I got a better idea of the concepts behind impleader as the class progressed, and I stayed after class for about 20 minutes with Prof. Vetter to make sure I understood them. As we walked to the door, I had this exchange with him:

Me: Thanks Professor... you know, I did read the case.

Vetter: Oh I'm sure you did. The hypo was pretty difficult. I adapted it from an actual case that involved tort liability, and I probably didn't phrase it very clearly...

*pauses to think*

...you know, actually I think it was fine.

Me: *awkwardly* Oh. Haha.

I would have to say Vetter is the best teacher of all the professors I'm taking this semester. In terms of his ability to patiently ensure that we learn the material, he's tops. He's a tall fellow, probably about 6'3", but when people ask him questions, he always stays seated and never tries to pack up his books or show any other signs of eagerness to leave. Sometimes, it's the little things like these that matter. He's a great guy, but I definitely wouldn't say that he's any less tough. :-P

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On a side note, I bought Spicy Thai Kettle Chips from Cafe Zeb today as part of my lunch. Very tasty. They have got to be the most unique chip flavor I've ever had.

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