Lawsuit: In Session RylandW v. v__d [2025] FCR 37

RylandW said:
1. I feel belittled, although this is not practically provable.
2. I cannot provide evidence for my own feelings or emotional distress here.
3. Yes.
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4. Are there any other actual, provable damages beyond "feeling belittled?"
5. What evidence do you have that v__d is the cause of these damages?
 
Dartanboy said:
4. Are there any other actual, provable damages beyond "feeling belittled?"
5. What evidence do you have that v__d is the cause of these damages?
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My absolute most sincere apologies for the severe lateness in my response, that is entirely my fault and I take accountability for it.

4. Can I really prove my feelings to a Minecraft server? Probably not. But I can testify my feelings to my best ability.
5. Attached evidence — screenshots of v__d's cruel, false statements spreading disinformation to the community around the time of an election.
 
No more questions, your honor.
 
Hello all, I have taken over as the presiding officer for this case.

I see that we have done examination of a single witness but have not yet begun on the other 2 is this correct @Dogeington and @Dartanboy?
 
ameslap said:
Hello all, I have taken over as the presiding officer for this case.

I see that we have done examination of a single witness but have not yet begun on the other 2 is this correct @Dogeington and @Dartanboy?
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Your Honor, it is my understanding that witness examination is done, unless Dartanboy has any more questions for the other witnesses.
 
ameslap said:
Hello all, I have taken over as the presiding officer for this case.

I see that we have done examination of a single witness but have not yet begun on the other 2 is this correct @Dogeington and @Dartanboy?
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I have no further questions
 
Perfect. We will now move to closing statements.

The Plaintiff has 72 hours to post their closing statements. Once the statement is posted or 72 hours has passed the Defense shall have 72 hours to post their closing statement.

Thank you all for your patience.
 
Your honor,
I would like to respectfully request a 24 hour extention for my closing statement.
 
Your honor,
I'm sorry to do this, but somthing came up and I would like to respectfully request another 24 hour extention for my closing statement.
 
Dogeington said:
Your honor,
I'm sorry to do this, but somthing came up and I would like to respectfully request another 24 hour extention for my closing statement.
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Granted but no further extensions shall be given.
 

Closing Statement


IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
CLOSING STATEMENT

Good evening your honour, and may it please the court,

In the history of Redmontian law there have been very few successful defamation cases, and since the institution of the No More Defamation Act, there have been very few defamation cases in general. The No More Defamation Act expanded the protections of citizens against defamation by removing the requirement for the plaintiff to prove intent to defame, in addition to changing the requirement to prove damages caused by defamation, lowering the burden of proof to that of likely damages as outlined in the Legal Damages Act. As set by the precedent of prior cases (bigpappa140 v. .BelatedDragon35 [2023] FCR 63) there are four necessary conditions for a statement to be considered defamatory, and specifically slanderous: the statement must be in reference to the plaintiff, the statement must be made in a public setting, the statement must be false, and the statement must have harmed the plaintiff’s reputation. The first two standards are not in contention in this case, leaving only the final two: the falsehood of the statements and the damages suffered by RylandW.

In determining the falsehood of the statements made by v__d, the testimony from our witnesses has been immensely insightful. JunoAndrist was an informal advisor to RylandW’s mayoral run, in addition to being in the leadership structure of RylandW’s current political party. If anyone knew what Ryland was planning to do when in office, it would be her. According to Juno’s testimony, Ryland had no ambition to change the election structure in Aventura, and had no ambition to become, as v__d claimed, Aventura’s permanent mayor. Furthermore, Juno alleges that v__d sent other taunting messages about Ryland and Sleepii_Sloth, in addition to herself, making claims that they were “communists," despite this being untrue of the plaintiff’s ideological leanings, and that Ryland was a corrupt politician.

This account of false and harmful messages being spread regarding the plaintiff is further corroborated by the testimony of HomelessBum. Homeless testified that there were people in the in-game global chat claiming that Ryland had no plan, but also, contradictorily, was planning on “destroying things,” and recalls the overall tone being negative. Homeless has no clear relation to RylandW and was a neutral third-party observer, further demonstrating that these claims made by v__d and others were seen by average players who were in-game on March 31.

One of the claims made by the defendant was that RylandW is the cause of hyperinflation. When asked if, in his time in the House of Representatives, he had voted to pass any bills relating to the economy, RylandW testified that he had not. How else could the plaintiff have possibly had an impact on hyperinflation? Defendant further claimed the Ryland would become Aventura’s “permanent mayor” if elected. Again, Ryland’s testimony confirms Juno’s claim that he had no intention of altering Aventura’s electoral system and denies seeking to become Aventura’s permanent mayor.

The plaintiff testified that it was “humiliating” to have false and slanderous statements made against him. And who wouldn't be humiliated? Any reasonable person witnessing lies being spread about them by a well known member of the community would feel humiliated – even further so if they were formerly close to that person.

All of these statements were made during RylandW’s bid for Mayor of Aventura and were made in public forums where potential voters were able to see them. Therefore, the question we must now ask is: if a reasonable civilian saw these messages, would they be persuaded by them? Would a potential RylandW voter be persuaded by claims of corruption, a desire to become the permanent mayor, and being the cause of hyperinflation? Especially if the atmosphere, as described by Homeless, in the in-game global chat was negative and unfair toward the plaintiff? The mayoral race ended up being a very close call, with the difference between the two candidates being only five votes. While it is impossible to say with certainty that v__d caused the plaintiff’s loss in this election, it is far more likely than not that his words had an effect on some voters. With those voters as a result of v__d’s claims choosing to vote differently than they might have otherwise.

In conclusion, your honour, v__d lied – the defense has provided no evidence to the contrary, and through his lies, he has managed to meaningfully harm RylandW’s reputation. This reputational harm caused the plaintiff both emotional distress due to the severity of the claims being levied, and likely political harm from the inevitable loss in votes as potential voters saw the defendant’s claims and the environment they created. Political speech is important, and if the claims made by the defendant were only criticisms of his platform or expressions of the defendant’s own political positions, then there would be no case to be made here. However, that is not the case. Instead, the defendant has attempted to weaponize our freedom of political communication in order to slander the plaintiff for political gain and bring demonstrably false and damaging statements into Redmont’s political discourse, which is both alien to our system of communication and unjust in a free and fair democratic society.

It is for these reasons that we implore you to rule in favour of the Plaintiff and grant full damages. Thank you for your time.

 
Defense has 72 hours to post their closing statement.
 
Your honor,

May I be permitted a 1 hour extension as I will be just getting off work at the current deadline.
 
(I was able to finish over lunch - sorry for asking for the unneeded extension)

Closing Statement


IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
CLOSING STATEMENT

Your honor,

This case is nothing but a cash-grab... an attempt to take money from my client for using his constitutional right to political communication. If the Plaintiff does not like the Defendant's speech, they do not have to listen to it, but suing over it is unacceptable.

ON THE WITNESSES' TESTIMONY
RylandW's Testimony
When asked "What actual, provable damages have you suffered as a result of v__d's alleged defamation?" the Plaintiff himself informed the court "I feel belittled, although this is not practically provable."

When pressed further, he stated "Can I really prove my feelings to a Minecraft server? Probably not. But I can testify my feelings to my best ability."

Your honor, we ask the court to note that the Plaintiff stated the only damages they suffered was "feeling belittled." This shows that the Plaintiff believes v__d's statements did not affect the outcome of the election nor his reputation.

HomelessBum's Testimony
When asked about statements made in public about the Plaintiff, the Witness stated "Yes. I remember conflicting messages—some said Ryland had no plan, while others claimed his plan was to destroy things. I also remember someone mentioning that he lived in a gated community. The tone of the discussion seemed unfair and overly negative."

Notably, this shows that there was some public discussion about RylandW's plan or lack thereof, however, fails to trace back to v__d as the cause of this discussion. Alternative possibilities arise from this testimony:

  • Perhaps there was truth to the claims, and v__d was not lying.
  • Perhaps someone else started spreading lies, and v__d simply believed them.

On JunoAndrist's Testimony
As JunoAndrist was an advisor to the Plaintiff, they are not considered an unbiased party. They have a conflict of interest, in that it would be beneficial to their career for RylandW to win this case. As such, their testimony should not be considered.

Regardless, even if the Witness is considered trustworthy, simply because RylandW has never "expressed" or "mentioned" specific actions does not mean he did not take steps in pursuit of those actions, nor does it mean he did not want to do them.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS
Learned and Honorable Judge Ameslap,

The Plaintiff has done an excellent job of showing that the Defendant made several statements about the Plaintiff... and that's all they've done. They have failed to show that any damages occurred, and in fact, the Plaintiff himself even said the (alleged) damages were strictly emotional.

Furthermore, the Plaintiff's counsel attempted to shift the burden of proof to the Defense, stating "v__d lied – the defense has provided no evidence to the contrary, and through his lies, he has managed to meaningfully harm RylandW’s reputation."

However, this is not a valid argument. It is true that the Defense has not provided evidence to show that v__d was not lying, but we don't have to -- the Plaintiff has to provide evidence that he did lie, which they have failed to do.

IN CONCLUSION
The Plaintiff has failed to show that the Defendant's statements were false. The Plaintiff has failed to show that the Defendant's statements caused damage, and in-fact testified that they did not cause damages.

My client has a constitutional right to political communication, and since the claims made by v__d are generic in nature, according to the Federal Court ruling in [2023] FCR 62 that Political Communication is only illegal defamation when statements “are specific, false claims about specific actions and results...” these statements cannot be defamation.

We would also like to remind you, your honor, that according to the Legal Damages Act, "Legal fees do not necessitate inclusion in a prayer for relief or a countersuit to be awarded," and as such, if this case is ruled in favor of my client, we do desire the full amount of legal fees to be awarded to JusticeCompass in-game.

 
With that, we are finally in recess pending a verdict.
 
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