The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies / As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)

by Charles Henry Cunningham

Cases relating to real hacienda took precedence over all others. The president was instructed to see personally that these cases should not be subjected to delay and that at least one day a week should be set aside for their adjudication. Next in importance were cases involving infractions of royal ordinances and laws. Probate cases were given one day a week. Two days weekly were set aside for the consideration of suits which arose between Indians and between Indians and Spaniards. Cases involving the poor, however, were to take precedence over these. The audiencia was made responsible for the good treatment of the Indians and it was charged with the obligation of seeing that all suits to which Indians were parties should be tried without loss of time. Delays resulting from the carelessness of lawyers and from their eagerness to profit at the expense of the natives were discouraged. Matters of slight importance which pertained to the Indians were to be dispatched by decrees of the audiencias and viceroys; this provision was designed to avoid contentious litigation, to which the natives were characteristically inclined. It also sought thereby to protect them from dishonest judges and lawyers. Any and all of the cases mentioned in this paragraph were considered to be of such importance that they were classified among the first to be tried and determined prior to those involving property, commercial affairs, and ordinary transactions. Of the latter cases those already decided were to be reopened before the hearing of new cases of the same class. Cases involving the poor were to be given speedy consideration.[15] Length of waiting should be the criterion for the consideration of the remaining cases.

The audiencia was empowered to compel testimony from all persons and authorities.[16] As already noted, the oidores of audiencias which did not contain alcaldes del crimen were authorized to entertain appeals from persons who had been condemned to death.[17] The same was true of all other criminal cases that were admitted to appeal. Members of religious and military orders were not exempted from the jurisdiction of the audiencia.[18]

The laws regulating the audiencia’s jurisdiction in civil cases seem to have varied according to the time and the policy of the government. The audiencia exercised both original and appellate jurisdiction, as we have already noted. Most of the civil suits tried by the tribunal were appealed to it from inferior judges. A law was made in 1563 ordering that cases involving less than twenty pesos might be tried by verbal process.[19] This law would seem to have excluded cases of less than that value from appeal to the audiencia, as the processes had to be committed to writing in order to be appealed. The cédulas of November 26, 1573, and August 10, 1574, fixed the minimum amount that might be appealed at six pesos of eight reales, or 3000 maravedís.[20] Charles V in 1542 promulgated an important law for the regulation of appeals to the audiencia. It provided that the smallest amount that might be appealed should be 300,000 maravedís (667 pesos).[21] This law was re-promulgated on September 24, 1568, and on September 22, 1626.[22] The provisions of these laws, however, probably applied only to such cases as might come from provincial justices, since appeals from city judges and ayuntamientos could be taken over by the audiencia with less trouble and expense, because of the proximity of the tribunal. As a matter of fact, this opinion is seemingly substantiated by a new law, dated June 13, 1634, which ordered that an appeal from an ayuntamiento should not be received in an audiencia unless the suit involved a sum greater than 60,000 maravedís, or 133 pesos.[23] This was considerably less, it will be seen, than the amount fixed as the limit by the law immediately preceding it, which was promulgated in 1626.

The laws establishing the finality of the jurisdiction of the audiencia were also altered from time to time. The earliest law on the subject, dated April 24, 1545, ordered that no appeal should be made from the tribunal in cases involving less than 6000 maravedís (13.3 pesos).[24] This limit was raised to 200 pesos by cédulas of April 4, 1558, and March 4, 1559, and by the ordinance of 1563.[25]

In 1542, the jurisdiction of the audiencia was made final in all cases appealed from the ordinary courts.[26] The execution of all decisions which were not appealable was rigidly required.[27] By the ordinance of 1563 it was stipulated that sentences of review which had been confirmed by the audiencia could not be appealed again, no matter how large a sum was involved.[28] This was partially abrogated by the law of February 13, 1620, which ordered that cases involving 6000 pesos of 450 maravedís each, already terminated on review by an audiencia, might be further appealed to the king.[29]

Decisions were reached by the concurrence of a majority of the magistrates trying the case. When there were only two oidores present a decision had to be unanimous. In case the full quota of magistrates were present and the votes were equally divided, the fiscal might be called in to decide the case, but if the latter were prosecuting the case, or were otherwise incapacitated, a duly qualified lawyer might be chosen to serve as a special magistrate.[30] This rule did not apply to the revision of sentences in civil cases wherein the value exceeded 300,000 maravedís; in these the concurrence of three magistrates was necessary.[31] A record of the judicial decisions of the magistrates was kept in the official journal of the audiencia. Decisions and legal papers had to be signed by the magistrates involved. Oidores who registered dissenting opinions were obliged to affix their signatures to the autos with those who had voted in the affirmative, but the negative votes were also recorded.[32]

While the audiencia might repeal the written opinion of an inferior judge in review of sentence, the revision of verbal decisions of alcaldes ordinarios could be accomplished only when the alcalde in question had been summoned before the tribunal and the reasons for his decision had been investigated in his presence.[33] The audiencia, therefore, exercised appellate jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases tried in first instance by the judges of the provinces.

If an alcalde mayor or other inferior judge failed to comply with the instructions laid down for his guidance, or if he were guilty of an abuse in the administration of justice, he was held to account by the visiting oidor who was dispatched at regular intervals for the inspection of the provinces—and for the judicial scrutiny of the provincial courts. In cases of notorious injustice special pesquisidores, usually oidores, were sent at once for the correction of the abuse in question, at the expense of the offending officials.[34] These, if found guilty of wilful disobedience, were punished in accordance with the gravity of their offenses. The audiencia had appellate jurisdiction in these cases.[35] The visiting oidores imposed fines in accordance with a tariff which had been formulated by the audiencia and approved by the Council of the Indies.[36] All fines levied by the audiencia, either upon officials or individuals could be remitted by the president with the consent of the acuerdo.[37]

It was the policy of the government to give the audiencia final jurisdiction in as many cases as possible. It was desirable to endow the colonial tribunals and authorities with sufficient power to make them worthy of respect. At the same time it was necessary to relieve the Council of the Indies of the duty of hearing the vast number of individual suits which would inevitably come to it if that tribunal were made too accessible. The Council was occupied with appeals in government and justice from all of Spain’s colonies. It has been noted that the limit of value of cases which could be appealed from the audiencia to the Council of the Indies was raised in 1620 from 200 to 6000 pesos. This would seem to indicate a growing tendency to confine suits involving individuals to the colonial tribunals, thus increasing the importance of the audiencias, and at the same time making the Council of the Indies more exclusively a tribunal of administration. This change, however, was never completely effected, despite the various expedients adopted to discourage the appeal of individual cases. Persons appealing were obliged to guarantee the expenses of suit. The great cost, the delays, and the distance altogether made appeal difficult. Appeals of longer standing than two years were not received from the Philippines in the Council of the Indies.[38] An investigation of the records shows that most of the cases appealed to the Council of the Indies involved administrative law in some form, having to do either with the prosecution of officials, their removal from office, the prosecution of bondsmen, residencias, conflicts of jurisdiction, or with appeals from the decision of the audiencia in commercial and ecclesiastical matters.

The gradual extension of the jurisdiction of the audiencia over encomiendas may be cited as an example of the changes in the authority of the tribunal and in its relation to the Council of the Indies. The first important legislation in regulation of the encomienda was the celebrated law of Malines, promulgated in that city by Charles V, on October 20, 1545, and enunciated at successive dates until 1610. The law prescribed the course which was to be pursued by the audiencia in suits between individuals relative to encomiendas or the Indians thereon. In these contentions the Council of the Indies and not the audiencia was the final arbiter. The duty of the latter tribunal was to collect evidence in these cases, taking the testimony of witnesses for both sides and remitting all papers, sealed, to the Council of the Indies. The council, on consideration of the evidence, rendered the final decision. The audiencia had to conclude its part of the investigation and file its report within a period of three months. This time limit was extended to six months in 1554. The purpose of this law was to guarantee justice in the assignment and retention of encomiendas by removing them from the control of the audiencias, whose magistrates, as experience had proved, often allowed themselves to be influenced by local prejudices. Encomiendas were to be assigned by the king, in theory at least, and no other authority save the monarch and his council could exercise jurisdiction over them.[39]