- Judicial Procedure -
The office of Justice of the Peace was developed and filled by knights, esquires and gentlemen who were closely associated with the magnates. There was no salary nor any requirement of knowledge of the law. They were to pursue, restrain, arrest, imprison, try, and duly punish felons, trespassers, and rioters according to the law. They were expected to arrest vagrants who would not work and imprison them until sureties for good behavior was found for them. They also were empowered to inspect weights and measures. Trespass included forcible offenses of breaking of a fence enclosing private property, assault and battery, false imprisonment, and taking away goods and chattels.
The action of trespass was replacing private suits for murder and for personal injury.
Pardons may be given only for slaying another in one's own defense or by misfortune [accident], and not for slaying by lying in wait, assault, or malice aforethought.
Justices of Assize, sheriffs, and Justices of the Peace and mayors shall have power to inquire of all vagabonds and compel them to find surety of their good bearing or be imprisoned.
A reversioner shall be received in court to defend his right when a tenant for a term of life, tenant in dower, or by curtesy of the nation, or in [Fee] Tail after Possibility of Issue extinct are sued in court for the land, so as to prevent collusion by the demandants.
A person in debt may not avoid his creditors by giving his tenements or
chattels to his friends in collusion to have the profits at his will.
Where there was a garnishment given touching a plea of land, a writ of
deceit is also maintainable.
Actions of debt will be heard only in the county where the contract was made. The action of debt includes enforcement of contracts executed or under seal, e.g. rent due on a lease, hire of an archer, contract of sale or repair of an item. Thus there is a growing connection between the actions of debt and contract.
Executors have an action for trespass to their testators' goods and chattels in like manner as did the testator when alive.