================= Judgement: CFJ 710 ================= Caller: the Pink Bimbo, nee Kelly Judge: Coren Judgement: TRUE Injunction Granted: No Injunction Barred: Lee, Vanyel, Einstein Date Called: 10/24/94 Date Judged: 10/31/94 Statement: The Group Votes cast by Group MAPLSIRUP on Proposals 1271 and 1273-1287 are invalid. ------------------------------------------------------------ Judgement Text: I have waited as long as possible to pass Judgement on this CFJ in an attempt to subpoena the pertinent documents that would support MAPLSIRUP's case from their Vizier, without success. On their own head be it... R767 states "The Ordinances of a Group may determine how and when the Group casts its Votes; if the Ordinances are silent on this issue, the Group may not cast its Votes." Paragraph 8 [sic] of MAPLSIRUP's Ordinances (which do not otherwise address the issue of casting Votes) states "All other activities which the Ordinances may legally limit or allow, or otherwise affect, **MAY** be equally limited, allowed, or otherwise affected by the MAPLSIRUP Secret Law." (emphasis mine) I believe that it is valid to cross reference another document in this manner, IF and ONLY IF it can be proven completely and conclusively that such an other document contained the necessary provisions at that time. The above quoted paragraph is a POTENTIALLY valid referral to a method for "how and when the Group casts its Votes", and thus the Ordinances would not be silent on the matter - IF SUCH CLAUSES CONTAINING VOTING PROCEDURE ACTUALLY EXIST WITHIN MAPLSIRUP'S "SECRET LAW". Since their Ordinances only state that other activities MAY be allowed, this sentence in itself does not constitute proof that such clauses actually exist. MAPLSIRUP Vizier Lee has assured me that such clauses existed at the time the Group cast its Votes, and I believe him; however, as a Judge, I feel that I must operate on more substantive evidence than "hearsay", regardless of how much belief I may hold regarding it personally. In my opinion, the only thing that would prove the existance of such clauses "completely and conclusively" is to examine the complete text of MAPLSIRUP's "Secret Law" as it stood at the time of the submission of their Group Votes. Ideally, such a document should be a forwarded or bounced copy of a message which bears a timestamp *prior* to the time the Votes were sent, which to my mind would make it admissable as evidence. Unfortunately, a less-than-complete copy (i.e., excerpts) would not be sufficient, as it leaves open the possibility that some clause that wasn't quoted could affect the clauses quoted. I have attempted to secure such documentation, without success; therefore, in the absence of such complete and conclusive proof that the necessary clauses existed at the time MAPLSIRUP submitted their Votes, I am compelled to Judge this CFJ "TRUE". One final side note: there is a paradox in the second part of paragraph 8 [sic] of MAPLSIRUP's Ordinances which I believe makes that part worthless, and illegal should they ever try to invoke it: it states: "The MAPLSIRUP Secret Law shall take precedence over the Ordinances should they conflict." R721 states "All Members of a Group must obey the Ordinances of that Group at all times, so long as the Ordinances do not conflict with the Rules." The sentence in question tries to outline a situation in which the Members of the Group do NOT have to obey their Ordinances, which is in violation of the first part of the sentence quoted - which means that it is in "conflict with the Rules", per the second part. This means that the Members of MAPLSIRUP *MUST* obey their Ordinances, per r721, except for the second part of Ordinance [8], which is illegal. My deepest apologies to all for the delay in this Judgement, but I felt I would be doing the Group in question a disservice if I did not try to secure all the evidence pertinent to the case. Thank you, Judge Coren =============================================== Original CFJ =============================================== Arguments: Rule 767 allows a Group to cast its Votes if and only if its Ordinances so permit. MAPLSIRUP's Ordinances are silent in this regard; therefore, by Rule 767, the Group may not Vote. Since the action of Lee transmitting the Group's Votes to the Speaker is not legitimate, any Votes that Lee, as Vizier, attempts to cast for Group MAPLSIRUP are invalid and shall be ignored until such time as MAPLSIRUP amends its Ordinances to allow it to Vote. Group MAPLSIRUP has a body of "Secret Law", which may attempt to authorize it to cast Votes. However, Rule 767 says nothing about "Secret Law"; only about Ordinances. MAPLSIRUP Vizier Lee has informed me that the Secret Law is not part of the Ordinances, and that it is not publically available. Since a Group's Ordinances are available to the public, it is clear that this Secret Law is not a part of or equivalent to the Group's Ordinances. The Ordinances of any Group are required to be publically available: the Ordinancekeepor of a Group is an Officer (Rule 766) required by the Rules to maintain the Ordinances (again, Rule 766). By Rule 1064, any records which the Rules require an Officer to maintain are always available for public review unless the Rules specify otherwise. Evidence: Rule 767 (Mutable) Votes for Groups 767. Amend Rule 646. If a Group has N Members then it has N Votes for each Proposal in addition to those of its Membership. The Ordinances of a Group may determine how and when the Group casts its Votes; if the Ordinances are silent on this issue then the Group may not cast its Votes. The Votes of the Group are cast when the Vizier sends a message to the Speaker to that effect during the Voting Period and this action is legitimate insofar as the Ordinances are concerned. (*Was: 646*) Rule 766 (Mutable) Groups 766. Amend Rule 714. A Group is initially formed by a set of Players which has registered with the Registrar to form a Group; other Players may join later. Each Group has a Name, a Membership, a Vizier, an Ordinancekeepor, a Treasury, an Initial Set of Ordinances, and an associated form of Currency, called the Coins, where is the Name of the Group. 1. The Name may not be the Name of another Group. 2. The Membership is a set of Players; these Players are Members of the Group, and all other Players are not. 3. Synchronously with the registration of a Group, two Offices are created known as the Vizier, and the Ordinancekeepor, where is the Name of the Group. These Offices may never be empty, and the Vizier and Ordinancekeepor must both be a member of Group. The Vizier shall inform the Registrar whenever the Membership or the Ordinancekeepor of the group changes. When the Vizier changes, the new Vizier shall inform the Registrar of the change. The Ordinancekeepor shall keep an accurate and current record of the Ordinances of the Group. 4. The Treasury is a repository for Points and Currencies and has the same capabilities for holding, trading, and spending Points and Currencies as does a Player. 5. The Ordinances are a description of the operation of the Group. 6. The Coins are a form of Currency which is created synchronously with the registration of the Group. The Group may create Coins as it sees fit; these must be placed in the Treasury. The Group may destroy Coins as it sees fit; these must be removed from the Treasury. (*Was: 714*) Rule 1064 (Mutable) Freedom of Information Act 1064. Public Availability of Records, take II If an Officer is mandated by the Rules to maintain a set of records, these records must be available for public perusal, unless such records are designated by the Rules as private. An Officer who maintains such records must provide a copy of these Records to any other Player upon request within one week, or pay a penalty to the Point Reserve equal to three times eir weekly Salary, or 10 points, whichever is greater. The penalty does not apply if the Records are unavailable for reasons beyond the Officer's control and the Officer reports this fact, with explanation, within one week. For the purpose of this Rule, all records pertaining to Votes currently in progress, excluding the text of the Proposals under consideration, are designated as private until the end of the Voting Period. The Speaker shall, within the context of this Rule, be treated exactly as if e were an Officer. (*Was: 488*) MAPLSIRUP Ordinances: [1] Goals of MAPLSIRUP: - To promote good fun, and chaos, while ruthlessly and mercilessly tormenting all who love order; - To make other Groups look foolish; - To increase entropy in Agora - To promote the passage of blatantly silly Proposals; - To generally promulgate an atmosphere of general mayhem, silliness and chaos. [2] The Charterers of MAPLSIRUP shall be Vanyel, Lee, Einstein. If at any time any of these persons are a Player and wish to become a Member of MAPLSIRUP, they shall be automatically accepted as Members. [3] The Members of MAPLSIRUP shall be Vanyel, Lee, Einstein. This Ordinance shall be Amended to add any new Member's name in reverse alphabetical order whenever a new Member joins, and shall be Amended to delete any Member's name when e leaves the Group. [4] The Vizier of MAPLSIRUP shall be Lee. If at any time the Vizier ceases to be the Vizier in such a way that there might possibly not be a Vizier, then the Member whose average of all digits in their Point total is closest to 5 shall be the new Vizier. In case of a tie new Vizier is the Player whose Honour is closest to 20 kudos. [5] The OrdinanceKeepor shall be the Vizier. [6] There is no Rule 6. [8] All other activities which the Ordinances may legally limit or allow, or otherwise affect, may be equally limited, allowed, or otherwise affected by the MAPLSIRUP Secret Law. The MAPLSIRUP Secret Law shall take precedence over the Ordinances should they conflict. Communication from MAPLSIRUP Vizier Lee: Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 16:00:48 -0500 (CDT) >From: kinkale@quincy.edu (Lee Kinkade) To: kelly@poverty.bloomington.in.us (Kelly Martin) Subject: Re: Secret Law > two questions: > > is your "Secret Law" part of your Ordinances, or is it separate? As far as I can tell it is separate. > > is your "Secret Law" public information? No. ------------------------------------------------------------ Requested Injunction: None ===============================================