Problem.Dispute.Professor's plaques

    The University of Maine ("University") annually honors those members of its faculty who have served the University for twenty-five years by presenting each of them with an engraved plaque at a faculty appreciation dinner. At the faculty appreciation dinner of Friday, April 7, 2001, the University presented plaques to two members of the faculty. It presented a third plaque to the brother of a faculty member who had died shortly before the dinner. The University Provost held two additional plaques intended for two faculty members who were on leave and therefore did not attend the dinner. Each of the five plaques had been ordered from Maine Trophy, with payment due thirty days after delivery. 

    Each plaque was engraved with the name and seal of the University, the name of the faculty member, and the following words:

In appreciation for your 25 years of dedicated service to the University, students, and stuff.  April 8, 2001

    The date was wrong by one day (the University's written order had specified the words for the engraving, including the date April 7, 2001) and a typographical error by Maine Trophy had resulted in the word "stuff" instead of "staff."

    Maine Trophy had delivered the plaques to the University in March, 2001, two weeks before delivery was due under the contract.  Nonetheless, no employee of the University had noticed the errors in the plaques prior to the faculty appreciation dinner, because Maine Trophy had packaged each plaque in a custom box wrapped with gift paper and a silver bow, as had been its practice for the many years in which it had provided plaques to the University.

    The two faculty members who received a plaque opened their boxes the next week, placed the plaques on their desks, but did not notice the errors. The Provost did not notice the errors because he did not open the boxes containing the plaques for the two faculty members on leave. The brother of the deceased faculty member immediately noticed one of the errors ("stuff" instead of "staff") but never mentioned it to the University because he thought the error was humorous and fit the eccentric personality of his deceased brother.

    A few days after the dinner, Professor Oldstadter, who had also served 25 years but had not received a plaque or been recognized at the dinner, informed the Provost of the oversight. After profusely apologizing, the Provost immediately ordered another plaque from Maine Trophy. Maine Trophy's engraver, using the same template that she had used in engraving the other plaques, noticed and corrected one of the errors ("stuff" instead of "staff") before engraving the additional plaque, but she forgot to mention the correction of the error or the fact of the earlier error to her boss. Maine Trophy promptly delivered the new plaque to the Provost, but in its haste forgot to wrap the plaque in accordance with its prior practice. When the Provost received and looked at the plaque, he noticed the error in the date and opened the other two packages that he was holding to see if they had the same error. He noticed the same error in the date and also noticed the other error ("stuff" instead of "staff").

    Because the plaques were quite expensive and because the Provost was annoyed by rude treatment from an employee of Maine Trophy, the Provost instructed the University Controller's Office to withhold payment for any of the six plaques pending a determination of the University's rights against and obligations to Maine Trophy.

    What are the rights of the University against and the obligations of the University to Maine Trophy?  UCC 2-105(1), 2-607(1)- (3), 2-709(1), 2-606, 2-602, 2-513(1), 2-601, 2-508, 1-203, 2-608, 2-711(1).  Would your advice be affected if the relevant jurisdiction has adopted RUCC 2-508?