In certain cases no suit was allowed to gain standing. Contributory negligence,[166] the natural death of hostage for debt,[167] the accidental goring of a man by a wild bull,[168] are excluded from litigation. Such events cancel all further claim or are expressly said to have no remedy. There is no case for prosecution.
Compensation
Compensation for loss caused by crime, or neglect, is ordered on a scale fixed by the Code. Where a tenant takes a field on produce-rent his neglect to cultivate caused a loss to the landlord. He was thus bound to pay an average yield, or a crop like his neighbor's, or that of the next field.[169] In later times, the vagueness of this rule, which might give rise to dispute, was avoided by stating in the lease the average rent to be expected. For certain classes of land, where no comparison with the next field could be instituted, a fixed rate was set down.[170] Compensation for premature ejectment was ordered.[171]
VI. Legal Decisions
Meaning of the term
By a legal decision we understand a “judgment” pronounced by some judicial authority upon a case submitted. It is not easy to say whether the Babylonians had a separate name for this sort of transaction; but it had some peculiarities by which it can be easily recognized. It usually opens with the words, duppu ana, “tablet on,” followed by the statement of the object in dispute. This is very often abbreviated to a simple ana, “on,” or aššum = ana šum, “concerning,” or eli with the same sense.
These usages explain the curious tablet[172] where we have a long series of sections each containing names associated with other names by the word aššum. Thus we read:[173]
“Nishînishu, daughter of Rîsh-Sin, aššum Shamash-ellatsu, son of Itti-Sin-dinim.”