[blml] Clubbed Queen [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[richard.hills at immi.gov.au]

Sven Pran:

>>If the circumstances make me judge that Declarer acted
>>deliberately I shall come down on him like a ton of
>>bricks. However, my experience is that such cases
>>almost always are accidental.

Law 72B2:

>A player must not infringe a law intentionally, even if
>there is a prescribed penalty he is willing to pay.

Richard Hills:

So it seems to me that Sven agrees that declarer calling
for a card not in dummy is not only a void call, but
also an infraction of Law.

However, it seems to me that either Sven is arguing:

(a) if the TD deems an infraction of Law is an accident,
the TD should never apply the "could have known"
provisions of Law 72B1, or

(b) East's error was in no way caused by declarer's
earlier error, so Law 72B1 is not relevant.

If option (b) is the correct determination of the basis
of Sven's approach, then it seems to me that the
hypothetical "ton of bricks" ruling by Sven would be:

(x) a disciplinary penalty on declarer, but

(y) East would still be deemed to have led out of turn,
so the queen of clubs would remain a major penalty card.


Best wishes

Richard James Hills, amicus curiae
National Training Branch
02 6225 6285