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Lawsuits and Litigants in Castile
1500-1700
Richard L. ...
"Concerning lawsuits, diligence, an open purse, and patience. ... "
"Lawsuits are like cherries; have one and many follow. ... In 1566, Monterroso published his Práctica criminal y civil, a treatise on procedural law, in which he noted that "lawsuits and conflicts among the populace are growing daily . ... " (2)
Monterrosos opinion about his countrymens affinity for litigation was seconded in 1581 by that of a Valencian lawyer, Tomás Cerdan de Tallada, who observed that lawsuits were indeed "multiplying" although he was hard put to find the precise reason why. (3) By this date, other Spaniards were aware that the number of lawsuits had increased to a point where the courts of the kingdom were hopelessly clogged. As early as 1532, the Castilian Cortes complained to Charles V that [4] "the number of lawsuits has and continues to grow so rapidly that the cases cannot be dispatched with the speed that is necessary," resulting in "grave problems," among them costly delays that caused some lawsuits to last "twenty or thirty years and more. ... " (5) Subsequent visitations to royal courts uncovered "a multitude of lawsuits," "crowded dockets," and long, almost interminable backlogs of cases, additional indications that the volume of lawsuits was steadily increasing. ... This shortcoming was compounded by the failure of most tribunals to house their lawsuits and other legal records properly. ... At the chancillería of Valladolid, a major appellate jurisdiction, incoming lawsuits were seperated into loose, administrative categories known as partidos that varied according to the litigants involved in a dispute and the amount of goods, money, or property at stake. ... ), indicate a total of 2,584 lawsuits for 1560. By 1580, 3,238 lawsuits were recorded, and in 1594, 3,880, an increase of approximately 50 percent in fifteen years. ... (12)
Another indication that the number of lawsuits handled by this tribunal was increasing is provided by the cartas ejecutorias, the executive writs issued when a lawsuit was finally completed. ... Owing to gaps in the archives of the chancillería, it is impossible to determine whether the increase in the number of cartas ejecutorias was proportionally larger or smaller than increases in the number of lawsuits filed initially at this tribunal, but there is no doubt that the volume of business was expanding rapidly. ... Lawsuits submitted to the chancillería of Granada, a similar institution, were also increasing. ... No statistics are available for this tribunal until the seventeenth century, but in 1572, Philip II complained to its newly appointed president, Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva, that his councillors were spending far too much time resolving lawsuits and too little on other important matters of policy and administration. ... The number of lawsuits continued to rise, and in recognition of this situation, one of Philip IIs last administrative actions before his death in 1598 was to establish within the Royal Council a special sala de justicia dedicated to resoluton of civil disputes. ... (20) Although undoubtedly inflated, this estimate suggests the degree to which an educated Castilian was ready to believe that he lived in a society in which lawsuits were familiar to everyone, rich and poor alike. ... Indirectly, therefore, the king was party to thousands of lawsuits annually and, through his fiscales, was informed of important court cases as well as any difficulties in the administration of royal justice. ... The duke of Medinaceli had agents in Granada, Valladolid, and Madrid as well as a regular council composed of law graduates to help administer his estates and supervise his many lawsuits. ... In 1555, for example, Seville had eighty-five different lawsuits pending simultaneously at the chancillería of Granada, and to administer these and other cases the municipality retained the services of at least twelve lawyers. ... (30) In practice, however, many of the lawsuits presented by paupers (pleitos de pobres) were given only summary treatment, and in 1590 the official visitor to the chancillería of Valladolid said that poor litigants were obliged to "sell their capes" in order to pay the fees illegally charged by the abogado de pobres (advocate of the poor). ... Official records of the chancillería of Granada suggest that at least 10 percent of the lawsuits brought to this tribunal were pleitos de pobres, (32) and in Valladolid paupers in the late sixteenth century initiated between two and three hundred cases each year. ... " (35) So abundant was the flow of ordinary Castilians into the kings courts that many officials noted that delays and inefficiencies in the administration of royal justice were primarily the result of the large number of pleitos menudos (minor lawsuits) the crowns justices had to review. ... (37) Expensive lawsuits also figured in the petition of the New Castilian village of Corral de Almaguer which asked Philip II if it could levy a special head tax among its residents. ... In addition, it has many lawsuits pending in Madrid as well as in the city of Granada and the audiencia of Valladolid, but it lacks the rents, income, and fees needed to meet its debts. ... , there is no other way for the village to pay the above debts nor continue its lawsuits which are of such great importance. ... (40)
Endless lawsuits were also a cause of financial trouble for some members of the Castilian aristocracy. ... (41) Nor was Rivadavia alone; the early seventeenth century was a difficult time for most of the Castilian aristocracy, and the financial burden of multiple lawsuits was a major contributing cause. ... Ample evidence, such as growing backlogs of cases, suggests that the number of lawsuits was more than the law courts could easily absorb, but this ought not to be confused with litigiousness. The latter is a relative term, and, ideally, Castiles experience with lawsuits should be compared with that of other societies. ... (43) Figures for the number of lawsuits registered at the parlements of France during this epoch are not available, but it would be surprising to learn that any of these tribunals were inundated with comparatively more lawsuits than the chancillería of Valladolid. ...
Yet, for all of their apparent litigiousness and possibly as a consequence of it, Castilians in the sixteenth century looked harshly upon lawsuits and with suspicion on the lawyers, scribes, and other officials to which the harvest of the courts gave rise. ... (46)For this reason, lawsuits were widely considered as sinful, although Alamos de Barrientos, writing early in the seventeenth century, went even further: he classified lawsuits along with crime, vice, and luxury as "public evils" fomented by human envy and greed that ought forever to be eradicated from Castile. (47) His contemporary Antonio Liñon y Verdugo, answering the question, "What are lawsuits?" wrote, "Lawsuits are -- to ask for the property of another and to fight over what both possess, justly or unjustly." (48) Apparently, popular opinion regarding lawsuits during this epoch was much the same. The proverbs listed at the head of this [18] chapter provide at least some indication of the deep-seated suspicion of lawsuits that many Castilians seemed to have shared.
Much of Castiles thinking about lawsuits was, of course, conditioned by Christian tradition, and especially by St. ... In contrast, lawsuits, which were slow, costly, and involved the help of outsiders, were thought to disrupt normal workings of the community.
Approximate Word count = 5942
Approximate Pages = 23.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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