Formal Appeal of Caesar Xigalia to the SC

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Delia Lake
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Formal Appeal of Caesar Xigalia to the SC

Post by Delia Lake »

Appeal to the SC re the Candidature of Ceasar Xigalis for the bi election to the RA

I appeal to the SC on the following grounds

Principles

That NL 9-2 Land Sales Reclamation Act is intended to ensure that a citizen corrects any financial irregularity within a specified period ( or will forfeit their lands in CDS and thereby their citizenship). That any citizen who corrects the financial irregularity within the specified period will have all their rights (specifically to vote and stand in elections) returned to them.
That NL 9-2 Land Sales Reclamation Act does not state that the period of temporary removal of rights affects a citizen's wish to stand or indeed their name being put forward and accepted as a candidate. It does state that 'shall not have the right to vote in any CDS election or run for office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full.' This therefore indicates that the moment that the financial irregularity is corrected the full rights are returned to the citizen. Therefore to penalise a citizen who has paid their tier in full by denying them the right to stand in the forth coming RA bye election is unconstitutional and against the law as stated in NL 9-2 Land Sales Reclamation Act.

The very name of the act indicates its intent when it was framed. It was devised as a protection to the government finances of CDS in the event that a citizen should not pay tier by the due date. It gives a period 5 days to correct this, followed by a period where some rights are temporarily removed, followed by the right to cease and sell the individuals land if the default continues. It is clearly intended to protect the CDS financial position. It is not therefore intended to deprive the democratic process of candidates, unless they continue in default.

That the EO for CDS did not ensure that I had been notified of my default on payment of July tier (rather just sent an IM which did not reach me, i.e. fire and forget), despite this being a specific and obvious intention of NL 9-2, and this has apparently compromised my ability to stand for RA.

Facts

I discussed a late payment of tier with Sudane Erato in early July and made a payment to Sudane to correct the matter. Sudane returned this payment and asked I make it to Rudeen Edo which I did. Following this I believed, unfortunately in error as it turns out, that I had paid for July. I did not therefore realise that I would go into default later in July.

I submitted my request to be a RA candidate to Delia Lake at the Ball on the 1st August.

2nd of July Delia advised me of a problem as Sudane had stated I was in default for the July tier, this was a surprise to me as previously stated.

I contacted Sudane who cleared up the misunderstanding between us over the early July payment which was in fact for June not July as I had thought. Sudane also stated that the payment box generates IMs to remind citizens to pay and that she had sent an overdue IM to me when I was two days overdue.

I immediately paid Rudeen Edo the tier and also the following month. I.e. July and August to ensure my account is in good standing.

I do not have an avatar email address and do not wish to have my real email known in world. Therefore Sudane can only IM me or send a notcard. I do not forward IMs to my RL email.

As noted on my profile IMs are aften capped due to my SL business activities. I therefore will often not recieve IMs when out of world. The only sure way to reach me is by notecard. Notecard is a method included in NL 9-2. This method was not used by Sudane. Neither did she ensure that I had recieved her IM despite NL 9-2 making this default an obviously serious issue to CDS.

I have not as yet been included as a candidate despite my request to be so considered.

Law and notes

'Section 2 - The Representative Assembly Body

Representative seats are chosen by popular election, from among those candidates who qualify under the rules set forth here. Any citizen who is eligible to vote, at the time of nomination, may become a candidate by declaring themselves by a message to the Dean of the Scientific Council, within the time set by the Scientific Council for such nominations.'

This eligibility has been based on allowing citizens who have been citizens for a period of 28 days or longer from the point of becoming citizens the right to vote or be a candidate. It precludes those who have been citzens for less than 28 days prior to the election. As noted in section 3 below.

'Section 3

No citizen shall be eligible to vote in any election for public office in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators unless he or she has been a citizen for not less than 28 consecutive days immediately before any such election.'

Article VI - Citizenship

1. A citizen of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators is a resident of SecondLife who has been granted title to any land by the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, and who holds title under the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, for as long as he or she holds such title.
2. Without prejudice to any rule of law entitling any institution of government to substitute, or empower another person or body to substitute any land held by any citizen for any other land the holding of which would continue to entitle the person whose land has been substituted to be a citizen of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, no citizen shall be deprived of citizenship in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, nor shall any person, whether a citizen or not, be banished from any public land in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, without trial in accordance with law, or consent not to be so tried.
3. Section 2 above is subject to any rule of law whereby a person is deemed to have consented not to be tried by having failed within reasonable time to respond or respond fully to any notice sent to that person in respect of any such prospective trial, nor any rule that specifies what shall constitute a reasonable time.
4. Section 2 above shall be without prejudice to any rule of law whereby a person may summarily be banished by any citizen of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators appointed for such a purpose by any duly ratified Act of the Representative Assembly (or by any person or body deriving her his or its power to do so from any such Act), for up to fourteen consecutive days (but without revocation of citizenship or forfeiture of any asset).
5. Section 2 above shall be without prejudice to any rule of law whereby a person may be banished temporarily by Order of a Court of Common Jurisdiction pending such a trial as is mentioned therein (but without revocation of citizenship or forfeiture of any asset).
6. Any citizen may cease to become a citizen by submitting a notice in a form that may be prescribed by any duly ratified Act of the Representative Assembly (or, if no such form is specified, by notifying the Chancellor in writing) seven days in advance of the date on which that person is to cease to be a citizen.

'NL 9-2 Land Sales Reclamation Act

1. Citizens of CDS are expected to pay tier rentals to the CDS Treasurer in a timely fashion. The Treasurer shall set, (by posting to the CDS forums) due dates for tier, which shall be the due date thereafter. The due date will be no earlier than five days after payment boxes are open to accept tier payments. Landowoners must contact the treasurer directly to arrange pre-payment as necessary.

2. The CDS Executive Branch shall provide for notice (which may be by IM or notecard) to each landowner when they have failed to pay tier rental by the established due date.'

This notes by IM or notecard - I contend that notecard only is appropriate in my case as my IMS are capped as is noted on my profile. Sudane only attempted IM on the 25th of July. Having had no response and in view of the coming elections it was a responsibility of the Executive to ensure a notecard was sent.

Further A previous correspondence with Sudane earlier in July had attempted to ensure that all dues were paid upto and including July. Due to a confusion in this correspondence only dues upto June were actually paid.

'3. By the fifth day after the due date, a landowner who has failed timely to pay rental tier becomes a 'provisional citizen', and shall not have the right to vote in any CDS election or run for office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full.'

This clause does not seem in anyway to wish to deprive a citizen of their rights. Rather its intent seems to be to ensure that all payments are made and the return a citizen to all rights including voting and being a candidate immediately on payment and return to good financial standing. It does not in any way state that a citizen loses citizenship. It is very explicit it says 'shall not have the right to vote in any CDS election or run for office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full.' I contend that it not only states the penalty for non payment by the due date but also explicitly states that these rights are returned in full on payment of outstanding fees. I.e. there is a defined time duration of suspended rights until the outstanding fees are paid. It does not say that this law

4. The treasurer will notify the delinquent landowner by the 5th day after the due date for the month that tier is overdue and warn that reclamation will occur on the 14th day after the due date. At the 14th day after the due date, if tier is still outstanding, then objects will be returned and and all parcels will be reclaimed and set for re-sale.

5. If a landowner who has failed to pay rental tier owns more than one CDS property, all of that owner's properties are subject to the reclamation rules specified above, so long as tier for all parcels are collected by the CDS system as one payment.

6. The CDS Executive Branch is encouraged to take reasonable additional steps to notify citizens of past due amounts and all other matters described in this Act, but timely rent payment primarily is the citizen's responsibility to monitor.

7. This law repeals any provisions of prior CDS laws (including NL 7-6) that specify land reclamation or rent payment methods, to the extent that they contradict the explicit terms of this law.

Adopted by the RA 4 January 2009
Modified by the RA 29 July 2010

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Delia Lake
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Re: Formal Appeal of Caesar Xigalia to the SC

Post by Delia Lake »

CDS Constitution, Article I Representative Assembly

Section 2 - The Representative Assembly Body

Representative seats are chosen by popular election, from among those candidates who qualify under the rules set forth here. Any citizen who is eligible to vote, at the time of nomination[emphasis by SC],

The issue here is whether or not CDS citizen Ceasar Xigalia was eligible to vote at the published time of the deadline for declaration of candidacy for the RA bi-election. That date in this case was 1 August 2010. At midnight, 1 August 2010 Caesar Xigalia was listed as a provisional citizen and not eligible to vote according to the payment records of the CDS Treasurer. Therefore the SC could not accept Caesar's declaration of candidacy to stand for election to the RA.

N-L 9-2 specifies the remedies for citizens who are in arrears in payment and consequences regarding properties and citizenship if the citizen does not pay but does not in the opinion of the SC modify retroactively the state of eligibility to vote as a condition for declaration of candidacy.

It is in the opinion of the SC the responsibility of any and all citizens to ensure they are current on their monthly payments as agreed by purchasing land in the CDS and becoming a citizen. Law (NL 9-2) specifies the steps that the Treasurer should take to recover payment and/or reclaim land when payment is not made within the designated period. NL 9-2 does not relieve the responsibility of a citizen wishing to run for office of making sure that he or she is current on payments and therefore eligible to vote by the time of the deadline for declaration of candidacy.

It is the consensus of the SC that Caesar Xigalia was not eligible to vote and therefore not eligible to stand for election to the RA at midnight 1 August 2010.

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Delia Lake
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Re: Formal Appeal of Caesar Xigalia to the SC

Post by Delia Lake »

The four SC members who contributed to this majority opinion is based are Callipygian Christensen, Soro Dagostino, Claude Desmoulins and Delia Lake (SC Dean)

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