In the little lull that followed, Book Thrower had managed to gather his wits enough to resume his duties. "Ahem... While I still don`t see the relevance of inquiry, it would indeed behoove us to do everything by the book in such a high-profile case." - he announced uneasily, - "With that in mind, I`m overruling the objection. Plaintiffs are to testify about the initial agreement with defendant."
Class Action fumed. "And I`d like to state for the record that this is an outrage." - she pronounced - "And since it came to that, mr. Act, I`d like you to know that I will personally drag you through the ethical conduct inquiry at the merest provocation." Blueblood merely mimed tipping his hat at her, infuriating the opposing lawyer even further. "Oh, there will be no need for that." - he opined gayly - "As I will now show, my inquiry is a very important part of the case. Speaking of which, will the plaintiffs please explain the circumstances of the initial meeting with the defendant?"
- Er...
- Quite...
- Well...
- You see...
- It happened just before the contest!
- Yes, indeed, we did not have time to put everything down on paper.
- Frankly speaking, your honor, we did not expect it to be necessary at the point...
- After all, if you can`t trust the Element of Honesty, then whom can you trust at all?
Blueblood grinned. It was not a nice grin. It was a grin that would make a shark envious, in fact. "So... let me get this straight. You did not have the time to write down an agreement, but you did have the time to build a machine?" - he asked. "I object, your honor!" - Class Action intervened - "My clients had clearly stated they had no reason to go beyond oral agreement. One that defendant later reneged on, despite her social stature which defence so readily flaunted, no less!"
Blueblood coughed and tapped the table before the judge could - "Actually, I`m pointing out the contradiction in the statements given by plaintiffs. In their initial statement, they claimed they were contacted to construct the cider machine. Now, they`re claiming the initial meeting was just before the contest. Am I to assume that plaintiffs constructed a machine on a moment`s notice?"
Class Action scoffed. "There is no contradiction here, your honor." - she proffered, - "The request to construct the machine have had been made by the letter, so the first time my clients met the defendant was, indeed, just prior to the contest. Given the reputation defendant has, they saw no need to commit the arrangement to paper, which enabled the breach of trust we`re suing for now to occur unimpeded."
"Can you present the letter in question, perchance?" - inquired the prince with a lazy smile. Lawyer mare shook her head with a sigh - "Unfortunately, said latter have had been used for kindling shortly after being received. My clients have to live quite frugally, your honor." Nodding, Blueblood pressed on - "In short, there is no evidence of this letter`s existence, aside from plaintiff testimony, correct?"
Class Action frowned, as she offered cautiously - "Not the letter itself, no. However, I`d like to point out to the court that my clients are not the residents of Ponyville. Yet, they arrived to the town along with already built cider machine. I can hardly see why they would arrive to the town with such a specialised equipment without a preexisting reason to think there would be a market for it."
Blueblood scoffed. "Oh, yes indeed. Arriving to the town founded by apple farmers in the middle of cider season... Hardly a reason to expect that local populace would be interested in cider machine, no?" - he retorted, shaking his head - "As it so happens, we have had inquired the mayors of nearby towns about possible sightings of the plaintiffs. Here, I`d like to present affidavits by the mayor of Appleloosa and Cherry Junction. Both confirm the plaintiffs had passed through their towns aboard a "self-propelling cider-making contraption", according to mayor of Appleloosa. Note the dates - a week, and three days prior to visit to Ponyville, respectively."
He levitated the affidavits to the judge, proffering - "Your honor, it is the opinion of defence that there was no preexisting agreement between my client and plaintiffs. Rather, plaintiffs were travelling from town to town, seeking the market for their cider machine. Furthermore, according to both affidavits, corroborated by several witnesses each, in both towns the machine had suffered numerous malfunctions during the demonstration of thereof, turning away the potential buyers due to inordinate amount of maintenance it required. Defence further posits that the contest has had been staged on the challenge of the plaintiffs, and was a last ditch effort to recoup the costs of constructing the machine."
"What does it have to do with the case in question, Mr. Act?" - inquired judge acerbically - "As I noted before, I can not see the point of this line of questioning. I strongly suggest you give an explanation as to how all this is relevant to the case, seeing as you went to great lengths to make these inquiries." Blueblood shrugged a little, giving judge a little bow - "Very well, your honor. This line of questioning, along with the affidavits I just presented to the court is meant to showcase the glaring contradiction in the testimony given by plaintiffs. According to them, they built machine on the order of my client - however, as we just established, there is no direct evidence suggesting such an order was indeed given. Instead, as the affidavits show, there is a strong circumstantial evidence that suggests otherwise. I have had just given our version of events, which insofar is not contradicted by anything aside from contested testimony by the plaintiffs."
Book Thrower harumphed. "Are there any objections or explanations of this discrepancy from plaintiffs?" - he inquired irritably. Flim and Flam exchanged worried glances. Then, they both tried to speak up in the same time.
- There is...
- That`s no...
- Er...
- Um...
One more exchange of glances, and Flim began again, clearing his throat to start off anew.
- We do apologise for the misunderstanding, your honor.
- The truth of the matter is, the letter in question have had been damaged by the rain.
- Which is a reason why we used it for kindling to begin with.
- While most of the message was legible, we could not make out the exact name of the town we were invited to.
- So, we rushed the order to accrue some spare time...
- During which we methodically checked the towns one by one to determine which one extended the invitation.
- Obviously enough, when we were given the offer to do the promotion...
- We assumed we arrived to the town we were originally meant to visit.
- On the way, we constantly refined and finetuned our machine...
- To ameliorate the problems that would be otherwise present due to rush job.
- Which is why our tests in Appleloosa and Cherry Junction, that were mistakingly assumed by the locals as the sale pitches, were so subpar.
- We were still ironing out the kinks in the machine.
- We do apologise for not telling the whole story from the beginning...
- But those minutae details just didn`t seem to be of any importance to the case in question.
"There. Are you satisfied now, mr. Act?" - inquired Book Thrower tartly, as he slammed the gavel again, for no particular reason other then to make his mounting irritation show - "I don`t see any problems with that explanation."
Blueblood quirked his brow. "Really, your honor?" - he asked, his voice with obviously dubious - "Well, I just have one last question for the plaintiffs, then. Let us assume that letter existed for the sake of the argument. If the letter was damaged to the point where you could not be certain which town it was sent from, what exactly reason do you have to ascribe it to my client?"
"Obviously enough, the name on the letter was legible." - interrupted Class Action before anypony else could say anything. Blueblood shook his head slowly. "If that were the case, then plaintiffs would not have a need to visit each town. It would be quicker and cheaper to simply write to each town`s mayor and inquire if they have a resident by that name in the town." - he retorted - "Even in case of abundantly popular or partially legible name, that would have had narrowed the scope of search drastically. Or perhaps you`d like to claim your clients have had failed to think about such an obvious solution?"
After a brief discussion with her clients, Class Action proposed - "According to my clients, the name was only partially legible, and since the first part of the name is word 'apple', they could not be certain if it was indeed a name or an indication of sender`s profession." Blueblood nodded - "In short, plaintiffs had no demonstrable reason to believe this supposed letter was in fact written by my client and nopony else."
Class Action raised her hoof to object, paused, then slowly lowered it. "I concede that point." - she finally offered, - "My clients were not certain whom their business partner was until the meeting in Ponyville. However, I would also like to point out that we`re not discussing the rights, nor obligation to buy the cider machine in question. We are discussing the promotional act that my clients were contracted to carry out after they arrived to Ponyville."
Blueblood nodded, - "Yes, indeed. The point of my cross-examination was to demonstrate there is no tangible reason to believe my client had any business relationship with plaintiffs whatsoever prior to their arrival to Ponyville." Class Action immediately jumped up with indignant - "I OBJECT! My clients have had just testified about that pre-existing business relationship!"
The prince in disguise allowed her to finish, then retorted calmly - "I do believe you`ve just conceded there is no tangible way to prove if your clients have received a letter specifically from my client, even if we assume said letter existed at all. As of now, I have no further question for plaintiffs and instead would like to have my own client testify to the events in case. Preemptively, I`d like to state that I have no objection to cross-examination by my opponent, but I will object to pointless badgering of my client."
He turned around, making a grand gesture with his hoof, - "Miss Applejack. Please, tell the court about the arrival of plaintiffs to Ponyville."