Once more, I will not be responding to many elements of Chief Rock Sino General’s last several messages as I do not wish to annoy anyone by being a broken record.
Chief2k13 wrote:... So, if anyone tries anything other than getting a lawyer, they are now considered for the most part a freeman on the land now. ...
I don't think so.
Persons are labelled as "Freemen-on-the-Land" when they advance OPCA arguments, not due to their representing themselves without a lawyer in court. In Canada those persons are usually called "self-represented litigants", or "SRL's". A few months ago the largest horizontal survey of SRL's and their court experiences was published by Professor Julie McFarlane, that is a study entitled "The National Self-Represented Litigants Project: Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants". In that report the SRL’s surveyed identify many issues, including the cost and complexity of court, difficulty with forms, the indeterminate nature of family litigation, and so on. Not one complains of being called a “Freeman” or a “Freeman-on-the-Land."
Now, as I mentioned before the functional legal definition is to refer to these persons as Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument litigants (
Meads v. Meads, 2012 ABQB 571), or “OPCA litigants”. Anyone who advances an OPCA type scheme, argument, or documents is an OPCA litigant. Freemen-on-the-Land stereotypically advance OPCA-type arguments. Let’s look at what are typical Freeman OPCA arguments (paras. 174-175)
[174] Stated simply, Freemen-on-the-Land believe they can ‘opt out’ of societal obligations and do as they like … A common theme in Freeman arguments is that state and court action requires the target’s consent …
[175] … the Freemen-on-the-Land parallel the American Sovereign Man community. Both engage in a broad range of OPCA activities directed towards almost any government or social obligation. Both habitually use ‘fee schedules’, and advance claims and liens against state, police, and court actors. Many apply the ‘everything is a contract’ approach and so are extremely uncooperative, in and out of court.
You mention two examples of self-represented persons you have observed in court who you might perhaps call ‘honest litigants’? I understand you think they were treated unfairly? I will try to understand what they did, from your description.
Chief2k13 wrote:... Again, another lady who merely made requests from the attorney for any original or verified copies of any contracts that obligates her performance in regards to a debt. This is with a collection agency who went in and got a judgement without giving her due process or notice. … So, the attorney before she goes in, asks her what is all this paperwork requesting proof of obligation ??? She goes, lets talk this over in front of judge. So, right off the bat, lawyer goes, defendant appears to be using a freeman on the land approach and blah blah blah. Again, she states i didnt get this claim and just found out about it when they tried to garnish my wage. So, i made requests for any proof of obligation in regards to this matter. The judge goes, we dont need to provide you anything, you just have to pay this debt you owe. She goes, if i owe it, please show me the documentation that shows i agreed to be obligated to plaintiffs ?? Judge goes again, we dont have to give you anything, you know you owe it, so just pay. …
The lawyer asks her to be sworn in and puts her on the stand and start questioning her. She said the lawyer and the judge appeared to be ganging up on her and being very aggressive with her. I will get transcripts of this and post it once i got them. All and all , this lawyer got an order against her for 300 a month and none of her questions or requests were acknowledged and it all seemed to stem from the moment she was labelled a freeman.
This unnamed woman is attempting to nullify a debt using a foisted unilateral agreement. This is a very well recognized OPCA strategy, and flows from a misinterpretation of contract law. I have previously directed you to the Barry Skrapec cases which explain why this particular scheme is ineffective and illegal. In
Royal Bank of Canada v. Skrapec, 2011 BCSC 1827 (
http://canlii.ca/t/fq9sc) Justice Powers said:
[50] The primary defence that is raised is that somehow, by sending the correspondence that I have referred to off to the bank or its agents by registered mail, that somehow some new contract has been created or in some fashion the bank is prevented from pursuing its claims. There, what is referred to as law are merely definitions and cites from Black's Law Dictionary. Black's Law Dictionary is just that; it is not law itself. It may refer to maxims that are sometimes referred to, but it is not the law.
[51] The fact that a letter is sent to the bank, registered or otherwise, demanding that the bank prove its claim in a specific way, does not oblige them to do that. He might just as well have asked the bank officers to dress in some specific costume and march down the street, if in fact the debts were owed. It does not mean they are required to do it.
[52] It refers to a demand that a contract with seals on it be produced, a contract that was witnessed by other people. That is not necessary. …
[54] There is no obligation on the bank to produce a true certified copy of the actual accounting whereby the bank, say what has incurred certifying the alleged debt in accordance with the general accepted accounting principles. They have to prove that they advanced money and that there is money outstanding, and how they calculate the interest. …
As for your second example, where a male person was involved with a farmer, you have not described the legal dispute in manner I am able to understand. However, if the male person advanced OPCA arguments, I would be unsurprised if those were ignored and viewed as irrelevant. That is precisely what is considered the appropriate approach to OPCA litigation. It is rejected at the first possible opportunity:
Meads v. Meads, para. 631. These are no more than an abuse of courts and other innocent litigants:
Meads v. Meads, paras. 598,-599, 631.
However, what you will probably find is that many judges refer to OPCA litigants by other names, such as a “Freeman-on-the-Land”. That label is commonly used today as those movement members appear to be the most commonly encountered OPCA litigants. Ten years ago, those persons would have been labeled by judges as “detaxers” – that was the common movement then.
Perhaps in the future it will be something else. It does not matter. An OPCA litigant is an OPCA litigant is an OPCA litigant.
What is instead important is whether a legal action is or is not valid. What matters is the substance of the argument. If a person advances an OPCA concept, scheme or strategy, all Canadian case law of which I am aware says they will fail. Their arguments will be disposed of as quickly as possible to avoid waste. The OPCA litigant will probably be charged (elevated) court costs:
Meads v. Meads, paras. 594-600. There are decisions that report that outcome including
Dillon v. The Queen, 2013 TCC 242,
Dalle Rive v. The Queen, 2013 TCC 243, and
A.N.B. v. Hancock, 2013 ABQB 97.
Chief2k13 wrote:Oh btw, what was interesting, is this lady with the collection agency, tendered a cheq to them for xxx dollars (i dunno the amount) with a memo : Payment in full for settlement and closure of account #23423424, accompanied with a letter that stipulated that retention of the chq or cashing will be the parties agreement that the account is settled and closed. If cheq isnt suffice for settlement please return the cheq forthwith. signed and sent. The agency kept the cheq and even brought it up in court saying they tried to settle with a much smaller amount. Now i know collection agencies do this all the time, they say you owe 1000 but pay us 400 now and we will clear the rest, or something to that affect. Anyways, in court they still didnt offer the cheq back, wtf is that ?Im thinking that her offer to settle may have triggered the Freeman label but i really dont see how making an offer to settle is a freeman idea at all, if anything its an offer period.Anyways, is that not an agreement by their act of keeping, retaining the tendered cheq for settlement ???
I’m a little surprised you were confused by this given I know you are interested in contract law. The woman had a debt which was owed to a second party. That meant that there was pre-existing contract where the second party provided money or goods, and the woman promised in turn to pay. She had not completed her obligations to repay to date.
We will call the memo an offer. It does not matter if that is an offer to settle the debt as a separate contract, or as an amendment to the terms of the current contract. In either case, in Canada an offer is only accepted when acceptance is communicated. This is discussed in
Meads v. Meads at paras. 458-472. There are many quotes from Canadian contract texts in that excerpt. You might find it interesting - I know you like law texts.
So what about the cheque? The woman was legally obliged to pay her debt, I think we agree on that. The contract also has, at a minimum, an implied term that the second party should accept a reasonable partial payment to minimize potential additional interest charges against the woman. The second party had no obligation to look at the memo. It is immaterial as it is outside the current debt contract. The second party received what appeared to be partial consideration for the outstanding debt, and then followed its own contractual obligation to accept that payment and reduced the outstanding debt.
If the woman is now trying to say “no no, that memo was binding”, then she is trying to foist a unilateral contract as her contract offer was not accepted. Please refer to
Meads v. Meads.
I will offer a suggestion to you when this scheme might have worked. Let’s imagine the contract between a lender and debtor which has this term:
- Anytime a debt is owed at the end of a month the debtor will mail the lender a cheque for the entire debt in a single payment within one week.
The debtor mails a cheque for half the debt and a letter saying “I want to change this contract. I will only pay half, rather than the full amount. If you agree, accept half the payment.” If the lender cashes that cheque, the lender themselves has breached the contract’s terms by accepting payment that is not a single payment for the entire debt. That means that the payment acceptance must be under a new contract, and presumably that would be the contract suggested by the debtor in his letter.
I note that
might work. I have never seen that scenario reported in a legal case, but there you go. In that example cashing the cheque clearly means the lender is acting in a manner inconsistent with the previous contract. It may be evidence that a contract offer has been accepted, and a new contract exists.
Chief2k13 wrote:Now, in contract law books it is pretty clear
1.When all that is required of the offeree is performance, a unilateral contract is formed upon performance. The mode of acceptance is the conduct of actions of the offeree. No exchange of responses is necessary to indicate assent to the offer; rather, performance indicates the acceptance
2.Acceptance –Unspoken consent to concurrence in a transaction by virtue of failure to reject it, the receipt of retention of that which is offered.
Now, maybe Brian Blum or the other contract law authors are wrong, is that what i am to understand in all this ???
I was not familiar with Mr. Blum. I am guessing this is a reference to
Contracts Examples and Explanations, by Brian A. Blum, published by Aspen Publishers? It appears to me that this is an American law textbook. Brian Blum seems to be a law professor from the Lewis and Clark University in Portland. I am confused. Do you think that Canadian and American law is the same? I have previously suggested you refer to Canadian law sources. Not to go on and on, Canadian courts do not have to follow what is written in Canadian law texts – the law is legislation and case law. American textbooks may be interesting, but the law in them is not necessarily the law in Canada.
I know I am probably being annoying by saying this so many times but you really should start reading Canadian case law and legislation rather than foreign law textbooks. I think you would find that very helpful. If you insist on reading non-Canadian law text books, can I suggest you read textbooks from other Commonwealth countries, such as the U.K., or Australia? Their law is 'closer' to Canadian law as it comes from the same 'parents'.
Beyond that, if we are referring back to your example of the woman making a partial payment, accepting the cheque was not an action under a ‘new’ contract, rather it was the second party performing its obligation under the first contract to accept payment when tendered. Performance does not indicate an intention to create a new contract, but instead is part of the old, ongoing contract to repay the debt.
Chief2k13 wrote:So, to get this straight, there is no civil code in Canada, only Quebec ?
Canada’s law is a little funny in that it has two sources. In Quebec the courts inherited a kind of law from France called “civil law”. In the rest of Canada courts use the “common law” which comes from the U.K. Civil law is all written down in a single source, what is called a “civil code”. Common law is built incrementally in bits, by judges developing rules. While it’s a little complicated my understanding is that a good way to think of this is that with civil law it was all designed, at once, by a master architect. Napoleon created a civil code, for example. Common law grows bit by bit and has no master designer.
If you are interested in the difference between civil law and common law schemes I suggest you read these Wikipedia articles as an introduction:
These note the biggest difference is how these two systems are ‘built’. Both provide rules, but the manner in which those rules have developed are very different.
Again, I hope these observations are helpful.
SMS Möwe