Not The Only One to Suffer at The Hands of An Abusive Administration

  Lest any of you get the overly-optimistic notion that my nightmare was just an isolated or rare transgression by the nursing university administration, let's flash forward 4 months to early January 2008 and take a look at an email from Dr. Peng that illustrates another of the kind of underhanded and deplorable tactics the-then administration used to cower and manipulate the Taiwanese admin and teaching staff while abusing their rights.
 

----- Original Message ----
From: sypeng48 sypeng48@yahoo.com.tw
To: Curt D <in8aqua@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2008 5:11:40 PM
Subject: Justice

Dear Curtis:

I am so glad that you get your way and know how to win for your dignity. 

The authority of NTCN had lost her head!

At the end of 2007, the last working day, the personnel office ordered all the teachers and assistants of special plan (the situation of what your position was) to sign an agreement of salary deduction in the coming year, without any explanation! 50-60 staffs are announced to sign before 2 PM otherwise they will not be employed in the next year. 

Although after fighting they got a promise that the salary will not be changed, but it is harmful to our staffs. All but the decision makers (you can guess who) think what a ridiculous rough policy!  

And, at that day two of the assistant were announced that their contracts will not be renewed. Moreover, the third one was informed at the afternoon of 2nd Jan 2008 to leave her job even she already signed the agreement. The only reason is "according to the date of the contract"! 

One of our colleagues said this event was a copy of what happened on Curtis, although not all the same

Win what you should have from your lawsuit, or NTCN will never give you a cent!    

With Regards

SY Peng   Jan 6  2008

Curtis W. Diggs Jr. vs 國立臺北護理健康大學: Court Decision Pages 7 - 8

Curtis W. Diggs Jr. vs 國立臺北護理健康大學: Court Decision Pages 5 - 6

Curtis W. Diggs Jr. vs 國立臺北護理健康大學: Court Decision Pages 3 - 4

A Copy of the Court Decision...Finally!

  My friend in Taiwan finally got a copy of the court decision a few days ago after a verbal tussle with the Beitou District Police over whether or not she was authorized to pick up the document on my behalf from their office. Before I left Taiwan I had filed an official pleading with the court stating that I would be leaving Taiwan and my friend had my authorization to receive the court's decision.   

  Even after that, the court still could not manage to do things correctly - first sending the decision to the address where I no longer lived, and then not notifying the Beitou police that my friend had permission to receive the document. So much unprofessionalism among Taiwan's judicial, law enforcement (what an oxymoron!) and government officials.

  The court decision is 18 pages long, so I will post it gradually, a couple pages at a time over the next several days. It is a faxed copy that was scanned by my friend so it's a bit rough. Later when I get the original document I'll scan it myself and re-post the better images.

  For now I don't have much to say about the decision because I've only gotten a very general translation of some key points from my friend - the most key point being that the court ruled against me in my lawsuit on all points. When I can get a more detailed translation I'll be able to comment better on the judges' arguments, problems, etc. Another point my friend shared was that NOWHERE does the decision mention that "several witnesses saw me touch the accuser". It's either a fabrication of those who spread the decision to the media or just plain bad, inaccurate, sensationalized reporting by Taiwan's media.

  Here are the first two pages of the Taipei District Court's decision:

 

An Injustice to One is An Injustice to All Of Us

  The February 12, 2011, edition of the Taipei Times has a very good editorial on the extent of injustice in Taiwan and the title neatly sums up the guiding principle in my fight against the nursing university, the Ministry of Education and even the civil court: "Injustice For One is Injustice for All."
  For those of us teaching or doing other work here, the ugly hands of injustice reach all the way into the schools or other places of business we work in - in my case I was seized in their black grip starting with the manipulated administrative procedures of the nursing university, the cover ups and covering for by the Ministry of Education, the tag team intimidation of the prosecutor's office & the nursing university for 2 years, and reaching all the way up to the district court level in my civil lawsuit against the school.
  Here's the Taipei Times editorial: Injustice for one is injustice for all

The Tally So Far After 3 Years: 5 Lawyers, 2 Judges and No Decision

  Late Wednesday night, during another "lively" email exchange of differing opinions on my civil lawsuit, my attorney ended his final reply by declaring "I cannot agree the way you treat your lawyers and terminate the mandate here," becoming the 4th lawyer in the 3 years of the lawsuit to quit. All of the lawyers were provided through the Legal Aid Foundation in Taipei. I wonder if this is a common occurrence for attorneys in Taiwan to just up and quit when the client doesn't always see eye-to-eye with them.
  So the "here today, gone tomorrow" tally in this saga stands at 5 lawyers (add one who was the first to take my administrative case and I requested he be replaced) and 2 judges since 2008. With each new lurch in this case, it becomes clearer there is something more going on than just a battle over a simple, baseless false accusation.
  There is still no word on a new judge or the next court hearing date...already going on 3 months since the last hearing and 5 months since the previous judge declared I had 2 choices: either drop my lawsuit before he issued a ruling, or lose the suit because the judge had already decided the defendants were not guilty of any of the charges. This he had decided without ever allowing me to testify and present my evidence in court, while allowing 2 of the defendants to testify, including the accuser who spent almost all 40+ minutes of her time playing the "crying game" in another of her and the nursing university's dirty tricks to obscure the truth and unduly influence the court.
  On Jan. 13, the administrative high court here dismissed my appeal of the nursing university's sexual harassment decision on "procedural" grounds, meaning they won't proceed to hear the facts of the case because it doesn't meet their criteria. The court claims it is still a matter for the nursing university to handle.