Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/515

480 for legal service of summons, and a judg ment by default could bo set aside if proof of the presence of such witnesses could not be furnished. The defendant or accused, was to appear before a certain magistrate upon a day fixed, but by law, certain classes of cases could be heard only on certain clays or during certain seasons of the year. For example, a suit on account of debt could be heard only on the last day of the month; only in the months between October and March could suits growing out of mercantile transactions be heard; no claims by reason of inheritance—Probate Court business— could be fixed for hearing on any day in June, than the last month of the year. An indictment for murder could not be found in any one of the last three months of the year, for in all such causes, three preliminary hearings must be had, with an interval of a month between. In one class of criminal cases called EPHEGESIS, where a suspected criminal was discovered in hiding, the prose cutor had to take the magistrate to the place where the suspect was concealed, instead of taking the latter before the magistrate. In 2.civil TllE actions EX-PARTE this wasHEARING generally OR before LEXIS. one of the forty demie or tribal judges. The magistrate who conducted this examination introduced the case, when finally ready for trial, to the HELIAIA, and was present during the trial. In public or criminal cases the THESMOTIIETAI — six in all — had general jurisdiction. Special classes of cases were, however, by law assigned to special judges. All cases relating to marriage, divorce, tes tate or intestate estates, must be brought before the ARCIION, and all actions in which an alien resident of Athens was plaintiff must come before the POLEMARCH. At this hearing the plaintiff submitted his case in writing and the magistrate could reject it, throw it out of Court, for any one of several specified reasons. In this action the magis trate took the place of the lawyer who, in our practice, files a demurrer to the plain

tiff's bill of complaint. He could throw the case out for want of jurisdiction, because no cause of action was shown; because, being a mercantile case, it was brought in the wrong month, or because the plaintiff was a woman or a minor, and therefore not com petent to sue in her or his own name. Just here, however, was introduced a very singu lar but effective safeguard against judicial oppression. By the laws of Athens every magistrate must, at the expiration of his term of office, render an account of his administration to a tribunal composed of ten accountants and ten judges. This tribunal sat in turn before the statue of the hero from whom each tribe took its name, and when a magistrate rendered his final account to the HELIAIA any one who thought that his case had been unjustly thrown out of Court by such judge, could, within three days after the filing of such account, deliver to the member of the tribunal representing the tribe to which such complainant belonged, a table on which, over his own signature, was written the offense charged, the name of the accused magistrate and the penalty de manded. If such judge found the charge well founded he passed the tablet on to the THESMOTHETAI, and by them the accounts of the offending official were again presented to the HELIAIA for their examination and final decision. With such an ordeal in prospect —and prejudiced officials often suffered severely for their unjust decisions—magis trates would be very cautious about throwing any case out of Court. The plaintiff's state ment being accepted as valid, and demanding redress under the law, the magistrate fixed a day for the appearance of both parties to receive final instruction before going to trial. Payment of office fees must also be made at this time, and if they were not paid before the day for such second appearance, the cause was stricken from the list. If all, however, had been regular up to this time, the cause of action and names of parties were inscribed upon a tablet and suspended