CASE 22
Rule 61.2(d), Protest Requirements: Protest Contents
Rule 63.5, Hearings: Validity of the Protest or Request for Redress
Rule 64.2, Decisions: Penalties
It is not relevant to the validity of a protest that a rule the
protestor believes was broken is not one of the rules that the
protest committee later determines to have been broken.
Facts
After a collision near a mark, S protested P, citing rule 18 on her protest
form as required by rule 61.2(d). The protest committee declared the protest
invalid and refused to proceed with the hearing, because it said the protest
should have cited rule 10 rather than rule 18. Had the hearing gone ahead
and the parties been questioned, the protest committee said, the protest
might have been upheld. S appealed.
Decision
Rule 61.2(d) requires the protest to identify any rule the protestor believes
was broken. If this requirement is not met in the written protest delivered to
the race office, it may be met before or during the hearing. There is no
requirement that the rule or rules identified must be the rule or rules that are
later determined to have been broken, and it is irrelevant for deciding on the
validity of the protest that the protestor cited a rule that will very likely not
be the applicable rule.
It is the protest committee, after finding the facts, that determines the
applicable rule. Rule 64.2 states that a disqualification or other penalty shall
be imposed whether or not the applicable rule was mentioned in the protest.
The appeal is upheld to the extent that the protest committee is instructed to
hold a new hearing.
ITA 1967/4