May 4, 2011

Dear Cyndy,

Thank you for your welcome letter. We arrived here safe and sound and very tired early Monday (May 2) afternoon, having spent the night in an Econologe just south of Winchester VA.  The maximum speed on Virginia Interstates has been raised from 65 to 70 m.p.h. a bit of help to a speed-limit observant driver such as myself. We stopped in Chilhowie to buy groceries.  We drove across the mountain to Konnarock. At the house we found Jeane Walls, the lady - now 70 years old - who cared for my dying parents 20 years ago, cleaning the kitchen floor.  While she an Margaret marvelled at the blooming lilacs on the lawn, I carried the milk and the oranges and everything else upstairs. When I turned on the submersible pump in the well, I found that the tank on one of the toilets failed to fill.  In the winter, air enters the drained galvanized pipes and oxidizes the iron.  Then when it is finally turned on, the rushing water drives coarse particles of rust into the flexible tubing that runs from the shut-off valve to the bottom of the tank.  The repair consists in detaching the tube and putting its distal end to ones lips. A vigorous puff is sufficient to expel the obstruction, and the problems is solved. I've put up the bird feeders. The hummingbirds showed up almost immediately. Two cardinals and a titmouse soon thereafter.

After the hearing on 4/28/2011, Judge Macdonald entered an order:
1) the Court retains jurisdiction of the case.
2) the defendant is ordered to file by June 10,
   a report complying with Footnote 13.
3) a status and schduling conference is set for June 16.

Reconsidering the Appeals Court's footnote:

"FN13. The inspection of Meyer's work must be one of integrity and fairness.  A report of any deficiencies must have the substantiation of specific and detailed findings and reasoning. Any decision resting upon the inspection will remain subject to review by the Superior Court and appellate courts under the standards of the Administrative Procedure Act, G.L. c. 30A, § 14(7)(a )-(g )."

in the context of Shakespeare's jurisprudence:

PORTIA. Tarry a little; there is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood:
The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh.'
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.

I've decided that unless the Appeals Court backs down, which in light of the blatancy with which Nantucket is trying to frustrate its ruling seems unlikely, "the substantiation of specific and detailed findings and reasoning," will be required not only for the six or eight or ten purportedly unforgivable defects they will presumably describe and catalogue, but "the substantiation of specific and detailed findings and reasoning," is required for the purported deficiency of _every_ fitting and pipe that Nantucket wants to destroy. Moreover, the demand of Nantucket that the plumbing be destroyed without the evidence required by the Appeals Court corroborates my assertion of the project as a malicious deprivation of civil rights under color of law, for which damages may be sought pursuant to 42 USC 1983.  Maybe it's all a pipe dream, but I've told Margaret that I didn't expect to have any pressing legal work immediately after the June 16 hearing and that she and I might be free to return to Konnarock unless we chose to go to Nantucket to complete the wiring.

I conclude that Nantucket cannot destroy my plumbing without specific and detailed findings and reasoning for each item it wishes to have removed. Aside from the absence of objective cause, the cataloguing of all the fittings, all the joints would take not hours but days.  With Footnote 13, Justice Vuono seems to have effectively scotched Nantucket's dreams of vandalism. This having been said, I pinch myself to be reminded of the circumstances that both the trial and the appeals courts have no hestitation to ignoring the law or ignoring their own prior rulings when it suits their purposes. It's important to be prepared for all eventualities, - as I am.

Please give my regards to Ned; and both of you stay well!

Jochen

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