Strix v SD 2025 Civ 2
| Date of judgment | 19th March 2025 |
|---|---|
| Judge | Judge Tirado |
| Grounds |
Tort of Wrongful Dismissal (Article 17 of the Civil Code 2020) |
| Verdict |
D held liable for Wrongful Dismissal. |
| Result | D to pay 4,900 tau to P within two (2) weeks |
| Applicable persuasive precedent | Repeated failure of the defendant to appear in court is enough to enter default judgement in favor of the plaintiff. |
JUDGMENT by Judge Tirado
Default Judgement
[1] On the 18th of March 2025, the plaintiff’s counsel submitted a motion at 8:06 PM UTC to enter the default judgement in favor of the plaintiff, citing the defence’s “continual failure to respond in a reasonably timely and speedy manner.” In this motion the plaintiff presents four (4) unique responses from the 8th of March through the 18th that were all above forty-four (44) hours from when prompted and averaged a response rate of fifty-five and three quarters (55.75) of an hour between responses when prompted.
[2] Prior to this, on the 15th of March 2025, the defence appointed a second chair to alleviate the number of delays already experienced to that point. Initially responses were prompt on the 15th, but by the 17th responses had greatly slowed down. On the 18th of March, around two and a half hours (2.5) before the motion to enter the default judgement the second chair appeared to clarify if they were prompted to cross examine a set of evidence or not.
[3] As is such, the appointment of the second chair has failed to increase the speed of responses during the time they were added to this case. Seeing this and the other delays found within this trial, this court has accepted the plaintiff’s motion to enter the default judgement in favor of the plaintiff. This motion was accepted by the court around thirty-three (33) hours after the motion was filed.
Damages
[4] The plaintiff requested within their motion, that they receive a total of five thousand (5,000) tau, four thousand (4,000) of which regarding Breach of Contract, and one thousand (1,000) regarding both wrongful dismissal and withheld salary.
[5] Under Exhibit 1 of the plaintiff’s evidence, on 07/11/2024 a weekly salary of 300 tau is established. This was not questioned by the Defense.
[6] Within Exhibit 11, then President Benitfeet announces the dismissal of the Plaintiff on 07/29/2024, due to the plaintiff questioning “his faith and belief towards SimDemocracy”.
[7] Thus the plaintiff was working for a total of 18 days. Therefore, as it was a weekly salary, there would have been a total of three pay periods, of which one is left unpaid.
[8] Article 17 of the Civil Code 2020 sets damages to be rewarded as any salary lost. Article 18 of the Civil Code 2020 set salary to be up to double the salary withheld. Thus, the maximum amount able to be ordered to pay is nine hundred (900) tau.
[9] Article 19 of the Civil Code 2020 sets damages as up to double the demonstrated amount of the contract. The value of this contract is initially two thousand (2,000) tau as shown in Exhibit 1 of the plaintiff’s evidence.
Verdict
[10] As the default judgement is being entered, this court finds the defendant, SimDemocracy liable to all torts.
[11] This court orders that the plaintiff is to be paid a sum of four thousand nine hundred (4,900) tau from the defendant, within two (2) weeks time.
