Reading English Legal History without knowledge of the
Bible, one may be led to think that, at least to Western minds, the custom of
trial by witnesses began with the English system of trial by “compurgation,”
trial by attestation of twelve men touching one’s innocence, when accused of
crime; but in fact it is written right there in God’s Ordinance to His people
way back then on Mount Sinai.
For it was
written, “If a man delivers to his neighbor an ass, an ox, or a sheep, or any
beast for safe keeping, and it should be reported by the keeper that the animal
or animals have died, burnt, or driven off, and no sees it, that is to say no
one can attest to the truth of the keeper’s claim, then an oath shall be taken
of the Lord that he the keeper hath not touched his neighbor’s goods, and if
the keeper so swears, the owner of the goods shall take his oath as being
consistent with his innocence.
But if the
goods were stolen, the keeper shall make restitution to the owner. If the
animals were destroyed by say a wild beast, then he had to take the remains in
proof to the owner, and he shall be exonerated.
I cannot
resist the temptation to recount here a very similar experience I had once
appearing for an owner who was suing a person to whom she had given cattle
under what was called a contract of agistment, which is in fact a contract of
bailment such as being discussed here.
Under the
contract the bailee was under an obligation to take reasonable care of the
animals, and in return he retained a half of the increase.
At some
stage there was a flood in the area and the bailee informed the owner that all
her animals had perished in the flood.
The owner
did not believe the bailee’s account, and sued him for the loss of her
property.
The bailee
gave evidence that he was not in the country when the flood occurred, but that
his 16 year old son had called him and told him what had happened.
Counsel for
the bailee asked the lad, “What did you do when you discovered that the cattle
had died?”
“I called
my father and told him what happened.”
“And what
did you use to call him?” Counsel persisted.
“I
used to call him Daddy,” replied the boy. Morewww.chaberbooks.com
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