Doubted Claim - Law 68 D 2 (b)
According to Law 68 D 2 (b), if a claim is doubted either the Director is called OR play may continue upon the request of the non-claiming side and provided all four players agree. If this occurs the prior claim is void and not subject to adjudication.
If a player is not conversant with the law (as many aren't),as declarer he claims, an opponent objects to the claim and asks him to play on and he plays on, without obtaining the consent of the other two players, gets flustered, makes a silly mistake and goes down in a making contract, calls the TD and blames the opponent, how should the TD rule?
My own view would be that ignorance of the Law is no excuse, if you did not know that you had the right to refuse to play on and to call the TD to adjudicate, then accept the outcome. The Law does not allow the TD to adjudicate on the claim after you have agreed to play on.
BUT, was the decision to play on valid in the absence of agreement by all four players? If it wasn't, what is the remedy?
Comments
If there wasn't agreement to play on by all four, the TD adjudicates it as a disputed claim, allowing the actual play to be considered evidence of what happened when play continued.
Thank you Gordon