O Frabjous Day!

I was out running errands in the rain this afternoon. When I came home, there was a pickup notice in the mailbox for a registered letter. I was only expecting one such letter, so it was with some anxiety and trepidation that I trudged back out into the rain to pick it up. Indeed, it was a letter from the Court of Quebec. I promised Rachel that I wouldn't open it until I got home, so I trudged out into the rain again, with the envelope throbbing in my pocket like Sauron's ring. Upon opening it, I slogged thru 19 clauses of French legalese before getting to number 20, which reads:

En conséquence do tout ce qui précède, le Tribunal conclut qu'au 31 décembre 2000, M. Wells n'était pas résident du Québec.

I was so elated, I pumped my left fist in the air, forgetting that the ceiling of my living room is only 6'3". (Only minor superficial damage to one knuckle.) For those who can't read French at all, the judge ruled that I wasn't a resident of Quebec in 2000 and so do not owe Revenue Quebec the $5700+ they've been trying to get from me since 2005. The judge said that "with all due respect, the Court holds that this position [RQ's that I was a resident] contains a manifest error concerning Mr. Wells's living habits between January and August 2000." I.e. what I was saying all along. A big victory for the little guy, although the whole affair did cost me somewhere around $1000 and untold hours of my life. It's been ... taxing. I'm glad the whole mess is settled now and so relieved that it worked out as it should have.