Searches for spontaneous R-parity-violating signals at roots = 183 GeV and roots = 189 GeV have been performed using the 1997 and 1998 DELPHI data, under the assumption of R-parity breaking in the third lepton family. The expected topology for the decay of a pair of charginos into two acoplanar taus plus missing energy was investigated and no evidence for a signal was found. The results were used to derive a limit on the chargino mass and to constrain the allowed domains of the MSSM parameter space. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. RI De Angelis, Alessandro/B-5372-2009; Ragazzi, Stefano/D-2463-2009; Gonzalez Caballero, Isidro/E-7354-2010; Krammer, Manfred/A-6508-2010; Katsanevas, Stavros/A-4297-2011; Ruiz, Alberto/E-4473-2011; Andreazza, Attilio/E-5642-2011; Marti-Garcia, Salvador/F-3085-2011; Verzi, Valerio/B-1149-2012; branchini, paolo/A-4857-2011; Shellard, Ronald/G-4825-2012; Monge, Maria Roberta/G-9127-2012; Petrolini, Alessandro/H-3782-2011; Fruhwirth, Rudolf/H-2529-2012