Slashdot Mirror
City Council Sues Itself, Seeks Costs for Frivolous Lawsuit
The Islington Council issued a parking ticket to itself, then decided to pursue itself at the Parking Adjudicator and asked for costs against itself. From the article: "In 2007, an Islington officer ticketed an Islington vehicle, but the department that got the ticket appealed. Because the department is not a different entity, in legal terms the council was appealing a ticket it got from the council, and under the rules above, the council was hearing its own appeal. After the council rejected its appeal, it then appealed again to the Parking Adjudicator. But having appealed, it then presented no evidence, and the Adjudicator voided the ticket. Feeling its appeal had been an outrageous waste of time, the council asked for costs, thus accusing itself of having acted frivolously, vexatiously and/or wholly unreasonably toward itself. The Adjudicator declined to award costs, pointing out that '[t]he legal status of the two parties in this appeal amounted to one and the same.'"
Is this the perfect example of the expression "go fuck yourself"?
Where even the government will stop at nothing to sue itself.
The best part of the whole mess is that the council had to pay two legal teams extra money to fight whether or not the council paid for its own costs or... paid for its own costs.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
having spent many years living under islington council I would say this behaviour is normal. Its what you get when you allow a place to be run by a bunch of egomaniac middle managers with little accountability.