the prisoners' dilemma

tio beh beo liao lor...just when i thought the i eluded the traffic fine i incurred when i rented the car while shawn and ruth were in town, in comes the summon for the $150 infringement. u see techinically i wasn't the one who committed the fine since it was ruth who was behind the wheel at that fateful moment. so i could conceivably elect to defend this infringement as stated on the summon my seeking either to view the photograph or to 'fill up a statement nominating the driver at the time of this offence' ie Bao Toh ruth. with these two options in mind, i can conceivable attempt a construct a payoff matrix with whatever little knowledge gathered from econs ala john nash.
1. If i do not challenge the infringement,

i. i will have to pay $150, and possibly incur a 3 point demerit point to my license (which i guess is a legal grey area since i have yet convert my singapore license for an aussie one).

2. If challenge the infringement, i will have to 'nominate' (the more palatable euphemism for bao toh-ing) ruth as the driver at time of the offence, and justify it with the photo, there can be several possible eventualities.

ii. i reveal ruth's details, and she gets either fined, a demerit, or both. but will only occur on the presumption that there's some centralised system monitoring offences between singapore and australia - a possiblity which i find implausible, though not impossible. the payoff for me would be that i'll not have to pay the fine, at her expense and earn a stain on my credibility since i've already promised her then that she won't pay the fine even when she offered to pay for it.

iii. i reveal ruth's details, and she get's nothing cos' there's not way the WA traffic police can hang her balls, while i get off the hook with no fine. and the case is left hanging. this is conceivably the optimal payoff for either parties though this is an unlikely outcome since there's probably gonna be some communication between the TP and the car rental agency.

iv. i reveal ruth's details, and she gets nothing, but the fine gets back to the car rental agency who would then possibly claim that i am still liable to pay for the fine since i was the only elected driver when i rented the car (since it cost more to add more drivers to the list) and by letting ruth drive was in fact a contravention of the contract on my part. while i've already gotten a refund of the 400 deposite i placed with the rental agency, i cannot be sure if they could jusfiably debit my credit details unilaterally on those grounds. the absolute worst case scenario then would be that i would have to pay for breaking the contract, and pay up the fine as well.



according to daniel who did some finance and biz law unit, 'when a lease is being made, the leaser incurs liability to the actions of the leasee and would hence assume the risk of having to pay for certain damages that the leasee caused using the item under lease' - on the book at least. so theoratically even if it boils down to iv, they're obligated to pay for my fine, while i play the bastard feigning ignorance about the fine claiming that ruth drove without telling me, and that ruth would probably will not have to pay since i feel it would be reasonable to assume that the WA TP and Singapore TP dun talk (i mean if it took years for the JB TP to come out with a system to monitor singaporean car traffic fines incurred in JB, surely it's less likey for the former to take place). but would this perceived most likely outcome hold water?

i've got till 20th of july to decide. and this brings another dimension to the dilemma since i'll be flying home in about 3 days time and more importantly 2 more exams coming up so i can't be bothered to give two hoot to this now. should i leave this summon hanging, would it in anyway affect my immigration procedure or worse, my student visa? or perhaps i could possibly elect to pay or to challenge the infringement only after return since i'll have a leeway of about 3 days between my arrival date and the deadline. sigh...responsibilities.... better go watch A Beautiful Mind Again for advice - not before i survive my calculus paper tomorrow and that ever-so trepidating management accounting exam.