The admissiondepartment at New YorkUniversity places an order with a commercial distributor for 500 New YorkUniversity Sweatshirts at $20.00 each. There is no mention of guarantees or warranties in the purchase order, although the sweatshirts are expected to be at least B+ grade. In an email response, the commercial wholesaler confirmed receipt of the order, agreed to produce 500 sweatshirts of B+ quality or higher at $20.00 each, stated that the order would be fulfilled in 20 calendar days, and disclaimed any and all warranties. Following accepted business practice, New York University replied to the commercial wholesaler's email by stating that payment will be made upon delivery of the goods. There was no more interaction between the parties. After waiting two weeks for delivery, the admission department discovered that more than 20% of the sweatshirts had the incorrect "NYU" logo. The commercial wholesaler's response to the admission department's request for help was to refer to the email's terms and conditions, which stated that the company did not extend warranties of any kind and would not be refunding or replacing the defective goods.

Questions

1. Does this scenario suggest that New York University and the commercial wholesaler have a legally binding contract? To answer, you should determine whether a legitimate contract has been formed between the parties and explain why or why not.
2. Explain what you think the admissions office at New York University's strongest argument would be if it were to demand a remedy for the t-shirts that had defects making them unwearable, even though the commercial wholesaler indicated they offered no warranties.
3. Is there evidence that the distributor committed any kind of illegal or civil fraud? If so, please explain; otherwise, why not?