It was advantageous for a party to sue for trespass
in the King's court because there a defendant could be made to pay
a fine to the king or be imprisoned, or declared outlaw if he did
not appear at court.
A wrongful step on the defendant's land, a wrongful touch to his
person or chattels could be held to constitute sufficient force
and an adequate breach of the king's peace to sustain a trespass
action. A new form of action is trespass on the case, which did
not require the element of force or of breach of the peace that
the trespass offense requires. Trespass on the case [or "case" for
short] expands in usage to cover many types of situations.
Stemming from it is "assumpsit", which provided damages for breach
of an oral agreement and a written agreement without a seal.
Parliament's supremacy over all regular courts of law was firmly
established and it was called "the high court of Parliament",
paradoxically, since it came to rarely function as a law court.
The humanist intellectual revival also caused the church courts to
try to eliminate contradictions with state law, for instance in
debt, restitution, illegitimacy, and the age of legal majority.
The Bishop's Court in London had nine offenders a week by 1500.
Half of these cases were for adultery and sexual offenses, and the
rest were for slander, blasphemy, missing church services, and
breach of faith. Punishment was penance by walking barefoot before
the cross in the Sunday Procession dressed in a sheet and holding
a candle.
Pages:
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554