Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/314

 duty it is to assign cases. Penalty: loss of cases for two months, and loss of the case in question.]

163. [Records and documents must not be committed to the care of any but attorneys or counselors, and to them only on their giving a receipt. Fines are imposed for delay in returning them.]

164. [No record is to be kept of a case of twenty pesos or less, and no fee of more than half a peso from each party is to be taken in such case. Fourfold penalty to the exchequer.]

165. [No fees are to be taken for a view of the records, in cases appealed from ecclesiastical courts, on the ground of violence to law [fuerza] if the case is referred back to those courts. Penalty: fourfold fine to the exchequer.]

166. [Fees are to be charged only for the record of such judicial acts as are actually before them, although the whole record is transmitted therewith. Previous penalty.]

167. [Charges of violation of their oath are to be preferred by the fiscal in the event of failure to at- tend on him with the weekly fines, or of making excessive charges.]

168. [Clerks must be present half an hour before the court convenes; and petitions must be handed in before the president and auditors take their seats in court. Penalty: two pesos of gold paid to the court-room.]

169. [They must affirm with their signatures the sentences given after review by the president and auditors, and written in a book kept in the president's room, before the third day next following. This is done so that the sentences may be known, and to avoid fraud, as the sentences are pronounced after review.