(c) The judge’s act must be subjectively unjust, that is, the judge must be seriously responsible for the damage on account of his culpable ignorance, negligence, or malice. Even though he has made mistakes through excusable inadvertence or error, he becomes seriously responsible for damage, if, foreseeing it, he does not do what is in his power to avert it (see 1769).
1963. When a Judge Is Not Bound to Restitution. A judge is not bound to restitution, however, for violations of virtues other than commutative justice.
(a) Thus, charity is offended, but not justice, if the judge has personal hatred against a person before him, but does not permit this to influence his conduct or decisions.
(b) Legal, but not commutative, justice is offended, if the judge is negligent about exemplary damages, provided the common good does not suffer; for there does not seem to be any strict right to the fine before sentence has been given. This is disputed, however, by some moralists, who hold that the judge is under contract with the community in this matter, and hence that he offends commutative justice, if he is habitually and to notable amounts indulgent about fines.
1964. Kinds of Accusation.—From injustice committed by judges we pass now to that committed by accusers. It should be noted that there are two kinds of accusation: (a) extrajudicial accusation is that which is brought before a superior in order that he may correct or restrain, without recourse to judicial process, a subject who is delinquent. This is evangelical or canonical correction, which was discussed in 1293, 1289; (b) judicial accusation, with which we are now concerned, is that which is brought before a judge, in order that redress may be obtained through judicial process against an accused person.
1965. Judicial accusation is also made in two ways. (a) The accuser sometimes does not act as one of the two antagonistic parties, and does not assume the burden of proving his accusation. He makes an official complaint or denunciation, and then drops out of the case, leaving it to the magistrate or other officer to examine whether a process should be instituted and the informer summoned as a witness. (b) The accuser is sometimes one of the two antagonistic parties during the process, and he then assumes the burden of proving his accusation. In Canon Law there are two kinds of processual accusers, the actor in civil cases and the accuser (an official known as the _promotor justitiae_) in criminal cases. In American law, the accuser in cases of private wrong is known as the plaintiff; in cases of public wrong he is the District Attorney or public prosecutor.
1966. The Duty of Judicial Accusation or Denunciation.—(a) If a wrong has been committed which is directly prejudicial to the common welfare (e.g., treason, counterfeiting, banditry), there is an obligation to make accusation, for each member of society is held to come to its assistance when its peace and order are endangered, and this is done by cooperating with the tribunals of justice. Duty to one’s family also requires that one prosecute, when this is necessary in order to protect its members against some great evil.
(b) If a wrong has been committed which is not immediately prejudicial to the common welfare, there is not _per se_ an obligation of accusation; for the purpose of accusation is to obtain punishment or the correction of a wrong—an end that should not be waived when the common good is at stake, but which may be waived when private interests are concerned. But _per accidens_, or by reason of circumstances, there is often an obligation of denouncing or accusing private wrongs.
1967. Cases in Which There Is a Duty of Making Complaint about Private Wrongs.—(a) Such complaint is obligatory in virtue of commutative justice, when by reason of his office, oath, or function a person is under contract to accuse violators of the law; and hence serious negligence in such a person entails the duty of restitution for any damage caused through his fault. Examples here would be a watchman who fails to report thefts, a man serving on the grand jury who does not vote for an indictment when he should, a prosecutor who is careless. The obligation is grave when the danger or injury to the common good is serious.
(b) This complaint is obligatory in virtue of legal justice, when there is a positive precept of the law which requires that accusation be made. The civil law rarely obliges to this as a duty of conscience, but there are a number of cases in Canon Law in which it is a duty of conscience to denounce (e.g., when there has been a _sollicitatio ad turpia_).