The winter mock trial is presented by the group we call ourselves the bar association. It is the Infinity Group that has lawyers a try to do toething more productive support theatre in all kinds of ways. Theater is what we are using the stage for. Beingnight is currently performed here. It runs until the 20th. [applause] i hope, if you havent seen it at least twice, you will consider coming. 12th night, by the way, is not how long it takes for the reconciliation action reconciliation act takes. Stranded on the coast of elyria, viola and her twin brother sebastian become separated. While viola assumes the costume of a page boy named cesarean to be the page for duke orsino, she finds herself at the center of a very explosive love triangle with a sophisticated they are wrong to think of us in that way. In a elyria and now in our theater, the issue is will music be the fruit of love, be enough to legally bind the marriage of the ola and sebastian in holy much of money. At the conclusion of tonights argument, after the judges have made their ruling, we will ask you to be the jury, to answer the following question. Should olivia and sebastians marriage be an old . If you believe, yes, the marriage should be an old ed, please vote with your blue token. If you think they should not, please vote with your red token. Please Welcome Supreme Court justice pamela token. Now please, the counsel for the respondent sebastian, dan gooden. And elizabeth in a moment, calling to order the marshall will call, we will welcome the bench for tonight. The Supreme Court will be chief judge merrick garland. Judge thomas griffins and judge cut time the brown jackson. [applause] they will be here in a minute. Please enjoy the trial. [gavel] all rise. Oh yeah a, oea, oh yeah a. The Supreme Court is now in session. Please be seated. [applause] thank you mr. Chief justice and may it please the court. To be leave olivia or not to be leave olivia. That is the question. My client tell in love with one person. She was tricked into marrying another. When she realized that she had been married to a stranger she sought annulment. The lower courts denied her that relief. It is only available when one spouse is behavior has been duped. There is ample evidence that sebastians Deceptive Behavior induced olivia to marry him. When sebastian first sets eyes on olivia, she called him her dears is reo. Cesario. Sesa people do go by different names. For instance when she is kicking it with her homeys, justice ruth ater ginsburg goes by the notorious rbg. As well as her graffiti tag, i ssent. But nothing in this record supports that sebastian ever went by the name cesario and yet he stayed silent. He thinks to himself that there is something in it disabled. He has a another chance to set things straight right before the the wedding. Olivia asked him point blank. My most jealous and ever doubtful soul may live at peace. There is his opportunity break there. In the record to say look, this has been great. It is not you, its me. [laughter] because its not me. Its you are clearly in love with a different me. But he doesnt say any of that. Instead what he says is, having sworn truth i ever will be true. Sebastian says i did not deceive her. I used my name during the wedding. But that it north the truth that olivia was highly distracted. She had arranged for a little cake shop in the neighboring country of colorado to create a expressive food for the wedding. The guy never showed up. Not to mention her loyal servant who is an ill tempered man prancing around the patio in yellow stockings. He brown hair and hazel eyes. [laughter] can i ask. I am a little worried about the implications of this argument for misrepresentation or miss understanding. You realize this is Twelfth Night which is 12 nights after christmas. Therefore winter is coming. [laughter] does this mean that john snow will not be able to marry dineros because, he is not his son . We could be in a lot of trouble. I am really upset about that spoiler alert. I like, have not watched that part. Thanks for that. [laughter] i think the answer is if we are talking about mistaken identities, we are talking about mistaken names. This is one of sebastians arguments. Because he used his real name at the wedding she was on notice that he was not who she thought he was. As the leading commentator put it, that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. I want to be sure i understand the facts of this case. So, if the priest shows up in drag sebastian and apologizes for her haste, that according to the priest she makes a contract of eternal love to firm by mutual joining of hands, attested by the holy coils of blips, strengthened by the interchanging of rings, during which sebastian declares i, sebastian, take the olivia as my wedded wife. You want us to believe that olivia did not know what you was getting into . [laughter] olivia may have been a tad impetuous in proposing the marriage. But to be very clear, olivia was not looking for love. Love found her. She had sworn off all suitors for seven years. She had deleted her profile from tinder. She had stopped surfing farmersonly. Com [laughter] but your brief does not focus on olivia. It focuses on sebastian hearing you say sebastian engaged in deceit. That is too harsh. He identified himself by name in the ceremony. It just turned out to be different. He turned out to be different than olivia thought. How is that any different than a husband finding out after the wedding that his wife is a Justin Bieber fan . And that wouldnt be grounds for annulment. Well maybe that would. I would totally right bieber into the prenup. The difference is there is a difference between a different name and a different person. This is not if you imagine a situation where joe dimaggio is at the altar with Marilyn Monroe and she calls herself normal gene. He is not going to walk away she calls her self gnome jean. Norma he is not going to walk away because he knows he is still marrying Marilyn Monroe. This is like great Britains King Edward marrying bart simpson instead of wallis simpson. [laughter] page 12 of your brief, you argue that sebastian agreed to marry olivia to claim immigration benefits. Sebastian had no other rational reason to accept olivias proposal. Are you aware that the role of olivia was claimed by telling carter and michelle pfeiffer. No other rational reason . [laughter] maybe he just because it was so unusual for a royal to fall in love with a foreign actor . [applause] [laughter] there is an issue prince harry may have an issue about this. Fair enough. Here is what i would say about that. To the point about sebastian not having a different reason for marrying her other than the fact that he needed to claim citizenship, i think that is exactly what was going on. You have a situation where olivia fell in love with someone completely different. Someone who will her and one her. Yada yada yada. The only thing sebastian said to her. The first thing hes dead is i will. This is not the person that she thought. It is very clear what his thought process was. He washes ashore, sees olivia, she proposes marriage to him, and he says i am not throwing away my shots. I am not throwing away my shot. I swim to this country. Im young, soggy, and hungry. [laughter] that is what he is thinking. [applause] what i dont understand is your timing. Why would your client want to annul the marriage right now . I hear the tax benefits will be in or miss for two wealthy people getting married in 2018. She should just hang on, dont you think . Im not really sure how that whole thing is going to shake out. [laughter] i think the problem with just to get back to the immigration argument and the argument is that because sebastian was protected by the deferred action against taxiways castaways act. He did not need to marry her hastily because he was protected by that. But, daca might not be able to sebastiaat all. He is the known associate of antonio. But i dont really understand why would anyone want to be a citizen of elyria. You have this guy running around with yellow stockings, people are drinking and quaffing. Sebastian says is everyone mad here . That sounds nice to me actually. So i want to ask you a hypothetical. This is a real hypothetical. [laughter] if judge Jackson Falls in love with judge griffiths yellow stockings and then she decides to marry the next strange, stout, smiling fellow who shows up in yellow stockings because he reminds her of judge griffiths, is judge griffiths really to blame if it doesnt work out . Maybe olivia just have a type . First of all, judge griffiths can carry off the yellow much better than malvolio can. But the problem is she married a stranger. She thought she was in love with one person and thought to was marrying that peon. I will tell you, this jurisdtion hasadhis issue before. When lady Britney Spears duchess of fresno accidentally married that guy at that drive through thing in las vegas. This court permitted her to annul that union. Her only defense was oops, i did it again. So your argument seems to be look what you made me do. [laughter] but, miss stetson he did identify himself as sebastian. And as groucho marx said, who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes . But i think that gets back to the rose point. The idea that he identifies himself as sebastian only put her on notice that this person that she loves also went by the name sebastian. Its kind of a potato potato thing. I prefer tomato tomato. My mistake i will correct the record. The issue here is not that she was marrying someone with a different name. This is not the Marilyn Monroe situation. This is the bart simpson situation. That is the very different situation. Isnt our standard much higher than that. You cant go around giving annulments like oprahs favorite things. You get an annulment and you get an annulment. [applause] [laughter] thats a fair point. I will promise that i wont be here again asking for another annulment on behalf of anyone else for a very long time am i hope. But let me make one other point. This is a textual point. He makes the point that you leery and statutes use the word procure and because he did not affirmatively go get anything, therefore he could not have obtained the marriage by fraud. Elyria and law is based on the shakespearean constitution, which is similar to the United States constitution but with more scatological in it. It simply means achieve. Three times in taming of the shrew. Once in othello. Even if you that is serious research. We dont do that here. [laughter] it is interesting to me that you have seemed to abandon an argument on the troubling issue of the fact that he identified himself as sebastian during the wedding ceremony. In your brief, you relied on an article in psychology today remember this . To underline the fact that olivia heard him identify himself as sebastian. We are not interested in sociological gobble the duke and we are not interested in psychological gobledy gook. Now i am. Before i abandoned it altogether. If you could just wrap this up. You are slightly over time. Let me end with this then. I would ask you simply in the words of sir mitch mcconnell. Sake of the ucky of kent, to yes i believe the woman. [applause] i hope you have a good comeback. My name is dan webb. I would like to thank the mock trial fact committee. This is the first time a chicago trial lawyer has actually been given facts that can establish innocence. We have never had that happen. [laughter] by the way, i think there are two reasons why i am given three minutes before you interrupt me, is that right . Im counting. So first of all, two reasons why you cannot annul this marriage under the law. The law of elyria there is a statute we are dealing with. Now may, sometimes that doesnt matter inside the beltway. There is a statute we are dealing with, the statute says a person who procures a marriage and then uses fraud in that procurement, a marriage could be annulled. I use the word procure because if you just think about it for one minute, what is the evidence that my client procured the marriage. Procured meaning i definition that he actually instituted a plan to carry out and get a certain result from her. The facts are, my guys walking down the street and olivia. He has been beaten up by chicago hooligans. Olivia shows up and says to him you must come to my house. She says it twice. Here is this beautiful, gorgeous, woman with this charming personality who says you must come to my house. Of course he comes to her house at that point in time. She walks in with a priest and says if your intentions are honorable, marry me. He says well, i fell in love with you because love at first sight and you are beautiful. She brings a priest into her room and they get married. Where does the word procure mean that my client did anything to procure at marriage. Therefore, if you foow the statute, you dont need to get near the issue of fraud, because my client didnt even procure a marriage under any circumstance. So we went under the statute. [laughter] we do. If you follow that law but we dont have to if you dont want to. If you want to follow that statute, then my client prevails in this case. I say that to you as jurors. Think about that when you deliberate. [laughter] heres what i dont understand. I have never understood this case in this sense. Olivias theory now i am entitled to interrupt you. [laughter] this is the part i dont understand about your argument. Why did sebastian want to stay married to someone who doesnt love him . Since we are quoting songs, if you love her, let her go. Actually that song does not apply to someone in sebastians Financial Condition in life. [laughter] when he is about to marry a beautiful woman, she brought to her house this gorgeous, wonderful house. By the way, one of the fallacies of the case is sebastian clearly knew Something Weird was going on here. He knew Something Weird was going on. But he did not know what they claim in this case. They claim that because olivia was actually in love with cesario, therefore my client should have straightened out this whole mess in her mind. When fact, my client did not know who cesario was and did not know anything about her behavior pattern over time as far as how she was dressed and deceiving other people. He knew nothing about that. How could my client have straightened out olivias misconception when he himself did not even possess the facts. How could your client have married her . Who in their right mind agrees to be married after only 20 lines in a shakespeare play . Thats a good question, your honor. Although, if you think about it, accordg tohe facts, men fall in love with this woman continually. At the drop of the hat. For no reason whatsoever. My client has testified that that happen to him. Love at first sight. Admittedly, he found out she was wealthy and had a station in life that might make him better off if he will that plan. But that is not fraud. Youre not going to annul a marriage because my client actually saw that he was getting some benefit out of this arrangement. There is no basis to annul the marriage. Mr. Webb, i have a question about our jurisdiction . Im a trial lawyer. [laughter] [applause] you still have to answer my question. [laughter] so your client claims he is a devoted husband and a saving influence on olivias life. But to me, sorting out this marital dispute sounds like a political question. How, how can the courts possibly develop a judicially manageable family for successful marriage. You see the woman over there with the beautiful white hair . She and i have been happily trying to figure that out for 53 years and we still dont have an answer. I dont have an answer. [applause] your honor, i dont actually have any way to answer that question. However, since that is not the law that we are supposed to follow in this case, since were supposed to be following this pesky little statute here i was asking you a jurisdictional question. The chief judge said that i as a trial lawyer do not have to address that. Can you at least produce the long for marriage license . Long form marriage license . [laughter] [applause] i cannot produce that, your honor. One thing that is interesting about this case is that if this high court in elyria is concerned about whether there is any equity or lack of equity in this case, if you think about it, both sides to this bargain actually got the benefit they were seeking. Number one, there is no question that olivia wanted to end up having the male version of viola which happened to be sebastian who was her brothe she got exactly what you wanted in this bargain. Its interesting that you should talk about gender. Im trying to figure out what it has to do with this. Record is clear that the Lower Court Judges who ruled in your clients favor work quote all mail. Judges lower, weinstein, so what do we take away from that . We did like the choice of the trial judges. We were very pleased with that although we are confident that this panel here by the way i dont know, i tried to resist myself several times over. I dont know what the role of gender has to do with this case. Im very confused about that. By the way, did my client get some benefit out of this bargain . The facts say well, he fell in love with her, it was love at first sight, yes but he got a benefit. In his station of life, through a rash decision, when you could judge and say why would anybody judge and make a decision in 30 minutes to marry anybody . Have you seen the bachelor . Yes. Although by the way, he actually had a motive to increase his station in life by marrying a beautiful woman, a magnetic personality, very wealthy, does that mean he committed fraud just because he wanted that that fell into his lap that they . That day . And by the way, under the facts of the case, he felt confused that night. He actually count confused. He had no idea that there was anything in her mind that he could straighten out. He did not know about these facts. Under fraud, under the law of fraud so he thought that she just liked him at first sight to . I dont he testified to seriously . In the play itself it says he is confused. He wasnt quite sure why she was proposing. We saw the video tape about two weeks ago in this very area. This guy is no ryan gosling. What makes him think that anyone would fall in love with him . Lets just assume thats correct. Your honor, that is correct. She would have had no reason to believe a woman with that station in life would have anything to do with him. Where is the fraud . He announced himself as named sebastian. No way. As aaron burr would say, none of us were in the room when it happened. [laughter] the transcript by mr. Shakespeare does not include that fact. I understand you have been provided that but since w