I'm sorry to hear he is going through that. Knowing what that is like, he has my sympathies. I hope he can hang in there. Sometimes there can be recourse with the dean in some situations and best to meet with an advisor first for the best way to proceed. Prof's have done some crazy things over the years like the example you described, pure craziness.

One university I went to there were ABSOLUTELY no curves with classes of 250-375 people, they were not about to touch those numbers and work with them, despite problems in some classes.

The last university saw a whole spectrum of curves, positive and negative as described above. The ones that could be appreciated by many were the ones based on flaws in the tests, or when the prof realized there was material added on there that we had not covered yet; those type issues and positive curve was applied. A few would make a perfect range so they would not have so many failing, slide everyone up due to a 'flaw in their teaching', and did not want those numbers on record as so low, "CYA"-type grading. It was maddening because the learning environment was reflected in the grading, little teaching to go with the poor grading system. That is why I left.

The current university is somewhere in between. Though rarely curved, if it is, it is for a good reason. I have never seen the numbers skewed down, they are always in favor of the student and are rarely done, more prudent about doing so. Otherwise the grade you get, you are told at the beginning of class your exams and projects fall in such-n-such range then your grade will be this, and they mean it. Knowing how it can be, I TRULY appreciate this!