Pedro Hurtado Desquibel
An act decreeing that there shall be no suits without the filing of a sworn memorandum of the fees that the parties have paid.
In the city of Manila, on the seventh of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia, Court, and Chancillería of these Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas it has come to their knowledge that certain persons—not only Spaniards, but Indians and Sangleys—who bring suits in this royal Audiencia and outside of it, in the provincial and ordinary tribunals, complain of the large sums that are charged by the courts, in great excess of what they are ordered to charge by the royal tariffs; and that the notaries of the said tribunals, contrary to orders, send the appealed suits to this royal Audiencia, without placing at the end of them the fees they have paid; therefore, in order to remedy the aforesaid evil, and to put an end to complaints of similar acts of injustice, they ordered, and they did so order, both the officials of this royal Audiencia and the others in the provincial and the ordinary tribunals, and those outside of this city, now and henceforth, not to bring or send any suit to be reviewed in the court of this royal Audiencia, unaccompanied by a memorandum, signed and sworn to by the parties to the suit, of what they have spent thereon, and to what persons they have given the money; and not to bring any suit for revision in any other manner, under penalty of a fine, for each time when they shall disobey this order, of ten pesos for his Majesty's treasury, to be equally divided between the treasury and the court—to which, from that moment, they are considered as condemned. By this act they so provided and ordered, and they signed the same.
Don Francisco Tello Doctor Antonio de Morga The licentiate Tellez Almazan The licentiate Alvaro Zambrano
Before me:
Pedro Hurtado Desquibel
Proclamation: In the city of Manila, on the twenty-second day of the month of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of these Philipinas Islands, who signed their names to the above act, declared and proclaimed it in public session.
Pedro Hurtado Desquibel
An act decreeing that the clerk of court who receives the bonds of suitors shall accept only reliable bonds, and at his own risk; and that his residencia in regard to the said office shall be taken.
In the city of Manila, on the seventh of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas in the suits that are brought and considered in this royal Audiencia it is sometimes necessary to order the parties to give bonds, which are accepted by the clerk of court of this royal Audiencia, without his knowing whether they are good or not: therefore as some trouble and annoyance might result from this, and it is expedient to avoid this, and, where bonds are concerned, to require the residencia, they ordered, and they did so order, that now and henceforth the said clerk, in all suits in which bonds are ordered to be given, shall accept only honest, reliable, and valuable bonds, under the penalty of having them charged to his own account and risk if they are not so. He shall give reliable bonds therefor, and shall likewise undergo the residencia of his said office; and shall pay whatever is adjudged and decided against him, and any public demands which shall be lodged against him, as he is obliged to do by law. Thus it was provided, ordered, and decreed.