Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow APPENDIX B.: ACCOUNT-TAKING JUDICATORIES. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2

Return to Title Page for The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Economics
Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law
Topic: Property

APPENDIX B.: ACCOUNT-TAKING JUDICATORIES. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


APPENDIX B.

ACCOUNT-TAKING JUDICATORIES.

There is a certain species of cases, which will naturally appear to create a demand for a particular sort of judicatory, acting by a particular set of rules. These are the cases of which, in common practice, cognizance has been given to a special judicatory, distinguishable from the ordinary ones by the name of an account-taking judicatory.

By an account-taking judicatory, understand a sort of judicatory which has no other employment than the settling the balance, or say difference, due as between one party and another, in consequence of money or money’s worth, disposed of at divers times, by each, at the desire or otherwise for the benefit of the other.

Of the common characteristics of these cases, the principal one, and that an essential one, is this: on the occasion of the inquiry carried on between the parties, opposition of interests has place, but not, unless by accident, actual contestation.

From this principal characteristic arises another, which accordingly may be termed a derivative one: the evidence on which the decision is grounded consists mainly of a piece of written evidence, the trustworthiness of which has not for its assurance the customary securities of counter-interrogation, or, by means of the ceremony called an oath, punishment in case of falsehood: a voucher is, in English practice, the name given to a piece of evidence to which this effect is given.

Of a judicatory of this sort, the ordinary occupation consists accordingly in the reception given by the judge to the vouchers presented by or on behalf of one of the parties. On one side of the account stand the articles which the party admits that he has received; of which reception, no other proof, it is manifest, need be required: on the other, the articles which he alleges he has delivered, or caused to be delivered; and of the several acts of the delivery, or assemblages of acts of delivery, the several vouchers are exhibited as conclusive evidence.

But ere an account can be settled in a manner conformable to justice, decision on the subject of divers collateral demands may incidentally require to be delivered: each such demand being of a nature to be contested, and thereby constituted the matter of a distinguishably-separate suit. Of these demands, examples are as follows:—

1. Application for the disallowance of a voucher, on the ground of its alleged unauthenticity.

2. Allegation of a fraud, in respect of the non-performance or mal-performance of some service, the due performance of which is attributed by the voucher.

3. Application for liberty to exhibit evidence of the performance of some service, of which it is alleged by one party that it was rendered by him to the other, but that no voucher for it was received; or that, an appropriate voucher for it having been received, was by some accident lost: in any of which cases, either the value of the service will of course be lost to the applicant, or in proof of its having been performed, such other evidence as the case happens to afford must be exhibited and received.

An account brought before a judge, to be settled by him between the parties, may thus be considered as a congeries of suits, each party in case of contestation being pursuer in respect of the payment of every sum of money, or other service, which he alleges as being due to him: and defendant, in respect of each such service as, being demanded at his hands, he refuses to perform. Here, then, are in this, as in other cases, two parties interested, and a judicatory which on the subject of each such demand is to decide between them.

Certain cases, however, there are, and even to a vast extent, in which on no more than one side is any party seen acting.

On the other hand, considering the variety of the matter above designated, under the name of collateral matter, that would be liable to come under consideration,—no sufficient reason appears, why on this occasion the qualifications requisite on the part of an ordinary judge should be regarded as superfluous.

Still, however, a reason occurs, and one which seems a sufficient one for committing this species of matter to a particular species of judicatory: this is, that a judge-depute, whose time was exclusively or principally employed in the judication of business of so narrow a description, could not thereby be in a situation to acquire experience extensive enough for forming the qualification of a judge at large.

On this and other accounts, a competent person would scarcely be willing to accept, for this business, a pecuniary remuneration so small as what would content him in the other case.

Business of this sort being an object of general dislike, a judge-principal would not be able to obtain deputes in sufficient numbers, on any other terms than, in the case of each individual, an engagement not to employ him on this business.

On all these accounts, the most eligible arrangement seems to be, the committing the location of functionaries for this purpose to the justice-minister at once, or that that minister should locate an audit judge-principal, and he locate deputes in such number as he should find sufficient.