Accidental exposure of opponent's card(s)??
A slightly quirky hypothetical from last night's game:
My RHO put her hand down on the table such that it was resting on the corner of my scorecard. I picked up my scorecard without noticing, and her cards naturally shifted as I did so, remaining face down.
Suppose I had picked up the scorecard with sufficient vigour to turn some of them over - what would happen then? Law 24 does not seem to cover the accidental exposure of an opponent's card!
Comments
It doesn't, Law 24 specifically refers to "by their own error", which seems a bit harsh in this instance. The laws on recieving Extraneous Information might be relevant. 16D I think, Extraneous information from other sources.
Admittedly, this law mainly deals with a player recieving extraneous information, whereas in this case 2 or 3 players are getting the same information. Paraphrasing a bit, the director has to judge whether you can sensibly play the hand, and should adjust the score if he feels the effect of the hand has been affected.
The introduction to the Laws provides that the singular includes the plural etc. unless the context "clearly dictates otherwise", which I am sure it doesn't here. I am confident that it is right to apply Law 16D.