Distraint was adopted into the United States common law from England, and it has recently been challenged as a possible violation of due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.Korngold, G. Can Distraint Stand Up as a Landlord's Remedy? 5 Real Est. L.J. 242 (1977) In decisions like Luria Bros.
|
|
The Swedish Enforcement Authority (; literally: The Crown Bailiff Authority) is a government agency in charge of debt collection, distraint and evictions in Sweden.
|
|
A distraint in progress, depicted in a 1846 painting Distraint or distress is "the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed","Walsh v Lonsdale" [1882 21 Ch 9] especially in common law countries. Distraint is the act or process "whereby a person (the distrainor), traditionally even without prior court approval, seizes the personal property of another located upon the distrainor's land in satisfaction of a claim, as a pledge for performance of a duty, or in reparation of an injury."Steven H. Gifis, Barron's Law Dictionary, p. 139 (2d ed. 1984).
|
|
Literally the four paths of distraint, a process by which one could, under certain circumstances, seize goods owed by another. In Brehon law one does not immediately own the property, rather animals are taken to an intermediary land to wait in case the original owner pays the debt. As time passes, the animals are slowly forfeited. This tract deals primarily with four types of distraint, divided based on the waiting period.
|
|
The Anglican church legally exacted "extraordinary tithes" from hop growers, who began resisting the tax and risking distraint in the hopes of prompting a change of the law.
|
|
The effects continued to plague him in later life. Despite achieving an actor's pension (näyttelijäeläke), it was placed in distraint over the unpaid debts owed from the Lasilandia venture.
|
|
Distraint on a debtor's grain was forbidden by the Code; not only must the creditor return it, but his illegal action forfeited his claim altogether. An unwarranted seizure for debt was fined, as was the distraint of a working ox. If a debtor were seized for debt, he could nominate as mancipium, or hostage to work off the debt, his wife, child, or slave. The creditor could only hold a wife or child three years as mancipium.
|
|
The Swedish Enforcement Administration, or Kronofogdemyndigheten is the law enforcement service of the Swedish National Tax Board with duty to carry out judgments. It is also the main distraint authority in Sweden.
|
|
Article 61 of the Magna Carta extended the law of distraint to the monarch's properties. In England in 1267 the Statute of Marlborough was passed making distraint unlawful without a court order. Distress in this context was (and still is) a summary remedy designed to secure performance of an obligation or settlement of an outstanding debt. First, it was the bedrock of the notion that all citizens, irrespective of rank, were entitled to seek civil justice through the King's court or courts.
|
|
The eyre of 1255—6 heard that Abbas de Hales non permittit homines de Hales placitare vetitum namium in com[itatu]. Immo capet namium eorum et non vult eos deliberare per ballivos domini Regis — "The Abbot of Hales does not allow the men of Hales to make a plea of vetitum namium (prohibited distraint)Vetitum namium, meaning prohibited or unjust distraint, was a technical legal term for an action to recover a distrained animal or other property that had been taken by the lord as security for the behaviour of the tenant. Generally the first resort when such an item was not returned when due was to ask the sheriff for replevin, or legal restitution. If this failed, the appeal to higher authority was called placitum vetitum namium, "plea of prohibited distraint.
|
|
The Court's ruling in Flora was almost the opposite: the taxpayer was required to pay the full amount of tax claimed by the IRS to be owed by the taxpayer before the court would even hear a lawsuit by the taxpayer against the government to determine the correct amount of tax. The quoted language from Flora refers to the Federal income tax: "Our system of taxation is based upon voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint." The key words are "voluntary" and "distraint." Like many legal terms, "voluntary" has more than one legal meaning.
|
|
H. H. Leonard, "Distraint of Knighthood: The Last Phase, 1625–41." History 63.207 (1978): 23–37. online The king finally crossed the line of legality when he began to levy "ship money", intended for naval defences, upon interior towns.
|
|
The articles of the first group had to be collected from all over the Laws and the articles of the other four were roughly ordered one after the other: 1\. Theft and related offences, 2\. False distraint, 3\. Sexual offences, 4\.
|
|
Distraint typically involves the seizure of goods (chattels) belonging to the tenant by the landlord to sell the goods for the payment of the rent. In the past, distress was often carried out without court approval. Today, some kind of court action is usually required,"Distress", Britannica CD 2000 the main exception being certain tax authorities – such as HM Revenue and Customs in the United Kingdom and the Internal Revenue Service in the United States – and other agencies that retain the legal power to levy assets (by either seizure or distraint) without a court order.See United States v. Rodgers, 461 U.S. 677, 103 S. Ct. 2132, 83-1 U.S. Tax Cas.
|
|
In the United Kingdom the proposals which have been implemented to reduce the area to post-warrant executions by registered court bailiffs (enforcement officers) gained serious traction in the late 20th century. In post-warrant execution and former civil distress concerns were regularly expressed that certain instances of distraint/distress violate human rights, such as Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to respect for private life.Fuller v Happy Shopper Markets Ltd [2001] All ER The Lord Chancellor's Department (now the Ministry of Justice) in May 2001 issued Enforcement Review Consultation Paper No. 5: Distress for Rent, which spurred the abolition of distraint for residential leases and reduced it to peaceable re-entry, that is closing down of commercial premises and no taking of goods, by authorised, registered bailiffs ("Enforcement Officers") in commercial property subject to safeguards - to ensure compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998. It was thought that distraint would be abolished in the UK when the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, s.
|
|
He took illegal distraints. He behaved as he liked, it was reported, "to his poor neighbours, because no sheriff or bailiff dared to free any distraint which he had taken, be it ever so unjust". He also indulged in extortion. On one occasion he extorted 100 shillings from two men in Southminster.
|
|
The functions of an enforcement agent are laid down by the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013. The regulations reformed the ancient law of distress (distraint), providing a set of codified, written rules concerning the process used for taking control of goods and, if necessary, their sale at auction to recover amounts of money owed by debtors.
|
|
Henry's 22 July 1681 diary entry has an account of the distraint of Bury's goods (he is here called Berry) for taking part in a private fast on 14 June. After this, he faced continued persecution and frequently moved location to avoid being caught by authorities. In later life, his circumstances were improved by bequests. Some years before he died, Bury became blind.
|
|
In Sweden, distraint () is performed by the Swedish Enforcement Authority. Bank assets and similar are taken first, but if needed the Enforcement Authority can visit people's homes, assisted by the police. Goods needed for an acceptable standard of living are protected, like clothes, TV-sets and stoves. Protected items that are expensive can be replaced with cheaper, and excess items can be taken.
|
|
One peculiarity of distraint lay in the fact that the distrainor did not get any form of legal possession. The goods and chattels were considered to be in the custody of the law. As a result, there was no taking of possession by the distrainor that was unlawful, since no possession was technically inferred.Enever, "History of the Law of Distress".
|
|
One peculiarity of distraint lay in the fact that the distrainor did not get any form of legal possession. The goods and chattels were considered to be in the custody of the law. As a result, there was no taking of possession by the distrainor that was unlawful, since no possession was technically inferred. The action in replevin began to appear in the thirteenth century.
|
|
The commonest mechanism was distraint, also known as distress (districtio), whereby the lord would seize chattels or goods belonging to the tenant, to hold until performance was achieved. This practice had been addressed in the 1267 Statute of Marlborough. Even so, it remained the most common extrajudicial method applied by overlords at the time of Quia Emptores.Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, Vol 1, pp.
|
|
A tax levy, under United States Federal law, is an administrative action by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under statutory authority, generally without going to court, to seize property to satisfy a tax liability. The levy "includes the power of distraint and seizure by any means".See and . The general rule is that no court permission is required for the IRS to execute a tax levy.
|
|
In countries where there is no public debt collection authority and where distraint authorities only become active when they receive a court order, anyone trying to collect money owed to them needs to perform the legal process themselves or use a private debt collection agency. Use of the services of the Swedish Enforcement Authority is considered complicated, so most companies use private debt collection agencies for the process in Sweden too.
|
|
The constables were surrounded by a mob summoned from two of Fielden's mills (supplemented by navvies building the Manchester & Leeds Railway), roughly treated and made to promise never to return. The following week a mob again gathered in the belief that another attempt at distraint was to be made; when this did not happen, they attacked the houses of various guardians and supporters of the New Poor Law, causing damage put at over £1000.
|
|
The Triennial Act required Parliament to be summoned at least once in three years. When the King failed to issue a proper summons, the members could assemble on their own. This act also forbade ship money without Parliament's consent, fines in distraint of knighthood, and forced loans. Monopolies were cut back sharply, the Courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission abolished by the Habeas Corpus Act 1640, and the Triennial Act respectively.
|
|
However, on 27 April 2007 the Corte d'assise d'appello in Turin reduced Franzoni's penalty to 16 years of jail for homicide. On 21 May 2008 the Corte di Cassazione confirmed the decision of the appeal court and Anna Maria Franzoni was arrested. In 17 September 2020, the Italian judges confirmed the immobiliar distraint of the house located in Montroz, to satisfy a professional credit of 245.000 euro for the attorney Carlo Taormina.
|
|
The provinces Imperial Chamber Court extended to breaches of the public peace, cases of arbitrary distraint or imprisonment, pleas which concerned the treasury, violations of the Emperor's decrees or the laws passed by the Imperial Diet, disputes about property between immediate tenants of the Empire or the subjects of different rulers, and finally suits against immediate tenants of the Empire, with the exception of criminal charges and matters relating to imperial fiefs, which went to the Aulic Council.
|
|
Civilian enforcement officers (CEOs) are either employees or authorised officers of Her Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service and are responsible for enforcing magistrates court orders. They can seize and sell goods to recover money owed under a fine and community penalty notice. They also execute, in England & Wales, warrants of arrest, committal, detention and distraint (also called distress). Members of approved enforcement agencies have the same powers as civilian enforcement officers, but are employed by private companies.
|
|
Distress damage feasant is a common law self-help legal remedy whereby a person who is in possession of land may impound a chattel which is wrongfully on that land to secure the payment of compensation for damage caused by it. It is part of the law relating to distraint. In some cases the party also has the right to sell the chattel. The chattel may be inanimate, or it may be an animal or livestock.
|
|
He had wide powers to construct fortifications and raise more men and was to finance the whole enterprise by voluntary payment and distraint upon the rent and goods of local Royalists. He approached Nantwich on 28 January. not just "to releave the town, beinge in greate danger to be plundered and destroyed by the Kings Armye and Commissioners of Array",Malbon’s Memorials of the Civil War. but also because it offered the only alternative to Chester as a county headquarters.
|
|
England was still the least taxed country in Europe, with no official excise and no regular direct taxation. To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles resurrected an all-but- forgotten law called the "Distraint of Knighthood", in abeyance for over a century, which required any man who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king's coronation to be knighted. Relying on this old statute, Charles fined individuals who had failed to attend his coronation in 1626.; .
|
|
Some tax protesters argue that filing of Federal income tax returns or payment of taxes is "voluntary" (in the sense of "not a legal obligation") based on language in the text of numerous court cases, such as the following: "Our system of taxation is based upon voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint" (from the U.S. Supreme Court case of Flora v. United States.362 U.S. 145 (1960). Flora was a decision on a rehearing affirming the decision in Flora v.
|
|
59 From 1348 onwards Burnham was under constant attack from the rival faction, headed by William de Barton, for alleged financial irregularities, and he spent much of his time in England attempting to clear his name. Troye became involved in the controversy: he had already clashed with the English Exchequer over his accounts and been threatened with distraint of his property.Connolly p.66 He and Burnham were now accused of corruptly diverting accounts to their own use, but they were both eventually cleared of all charges.
|
|
Loans were sought from the Portmen, councilmen and burgesses, and scot and lot was imposed upon the householders to raise £200 for the town's debts and for this suit, upon pain of distraint, seizure of property, disfranchisement and imprisonment for default of payment.W.H. Richardson (ed.), The Annalls of Ipswche. The Lawes, Customes and Governmt of the Same. Collected... by Nathll Bacon (S.H. Cowell, Ipswich 1884), pp. 277–81.The National Archives, Discovery Catalogue, items STAC 5/W9/38; STAC 5/W11/10; STAC 5/W26/40; STAC 2/20/178.
|
|
This was during that interval in the long service of Ralph Hopton as Knight Marshal between 1556 and 1558, whose staunch Protestantism became irreconcileable with that position in the household. Despite his absences from Parliament Rous suffered little distraint on that account during Mary's reign,Hyde, 'Rous, Sir Edmund', History of Parliament. but his costs rose against him. In 1557 he was awarded 1,000 marks in respect of his rights in the manor of Okenhill at Badingham, payable by the Duke of Norfolk's executors,Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich: Iveagh (Phillips) Manuscripts, ref HD 1538/120/6 (Discovery Catalogue).
|
|
An embargo (from the Spanish embargo, meaning hindrance, obstruction, etc. in a general sense, a trading ban in trade terminology and literally "distraint" in juridic parlance) is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country/state or a group of countries. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national- interest result from the country on which it is imposed. Embargoes are generally considered legal barriers to trade, not to be confused with blockades, which are often considered to be acts of war.
|
|
On the same day, European Investment Bank (EIB) announced it had rejected the request from Vladimir Antonov to become part-owner of Saab. In response to that decision, the director general of Swedish National Debt Office, Bo Lundgren, severely criticised the EIB for its treatment of Antonov in recent months. On August 5, Saab paid the salaries to the white-collar workers through equity issuance where the Gemini Fund bought 5m shares in Saab. On August 17, the Swedish Enforcement Administration (SEA) started a distraint process of Saab as a result of the company not settling its debts.
|
|
The Gemara explained that Rabbi Judah (reading the text literally) expounded the view that no pledge may be taken from her whether she is rich or poor. Rabbi Simeon, however, (addressing the purpose of the text) taught that a wealthy widow was subject to distraint, but not a poor one, for the creditor was bound (by ) to return the pledge to her, and would bring her into disrepute among her neighbors (by her frequent visits to the creditor).Babylonian Talmud Bava Metzia 115a, in, e.g., Talmud Bavli: Tractate Bava Metzia: Volume 3, elucidated by Shlomo Fox-Ashrei et al., volume 43, pages 115a2; Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 21a, in, e.g.
|
|
Should money be lent against the value of the equipment, and the loan goes into default, the creditor may find it difficult to actually remove the equipment in a timely manner. However, it may by notice to the borrower take constructive possession, which effectively prevents the borrower from further using the equipment pending its removal. Similarly, when a landlord exercises a contractual remedy of distraint of goods for unpaid rent, the landlord need not remove the goods from the premises, but may take constructive possession of the goods through a simple declaration. At that point, if the tenant attempted to remove them, the tenant would be guilty of theft.
|
|
De Castro takes oath as new SC justice GMANews.TV On January 10, 2008, Edgardo Urieta, Sandiganbayan chief of the Sheriff and Security Services Office released the two-page report (based on thirteen-page Banco de Oro to the Sandiganbayan Special Division) which discovered intact due to the 2001 levy by BIR distraint - P 1.107 billion ($1 = P 41) account of Joseph Estrada: P500 million - "promissory note and chattel mortgage"; 450 million shares of Waterfront Philippines valued at P 427.5 million; and 300 million shares of Wellex Industries worth P 84 million; cash deposits in a common trust fund investment account of P 95.76 million. GMA NEWS.
|
|
On August 19, it was confirmed that SEA had more than 90 cases with claims amounting to 169 million SEK ($25.5 million/€18.4 million) against Saab, of which 22 were in the distraint phase. On the same day, the SEA found an account at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, which they hoped contained at least SEK5.1 million ($0.8 million/€0.555 million) which would be used to pay off Saabs debt to Kongsberg Automotive. On August 23, Saab spokesperson, Gunilla Gustav, announced there was a chance the August salaries may not be paid because of lack of funding. One reason is that Saab had not received the money it was promised.
|
|
2:10-cv-00210, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Div. (July 12, 2011) (argument that an employer complying with an IRS administrative levy of a worker's wages must have "a court order, levy, or a warrant of distraint signed by a judge of a court of competent jurisdiction" was ruled to be without merit). In a variation on this argument, some tax protesters have argued that section 6331 of the Internal Revenue Code should allow the IRS to seize only the salary of an officer, employee, or elected official of the United States or the District of Columbia. This argument was rejected by the United States Supreme Court in Sims v.
|
|
Civilian enforcement officers are employees of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, and can seize and sell goods to recover money owed under a fine and community penalty notice, and also execute warrants of arrest, committal, detention and control (formally called distress or distraint). These functions can also be carried out by employees of private companies authorised by the Ministry of Justice. In July 2013 HM Court Service announced it is to fully contract out the whole of the compliance and enforcement process to a private company; this would involve the transfer of over 500 of its employees. This decision led to official strike action by some employees on 30 July 2013.
|
|
"The law of the land" is one of the great watchwords of Magna Carta, standing in opposition to the king's mere will. The Magna Carta of 1215 contained clauses which in theory noticeably reduced the power of the king, such as clause 61, the "security clause". This clause allowed a group of 25 barons to override the king at any time by way of force, a medieval legal process called distraint that was normal in feudal relationships but had never been applied to a king. After a few months of half-hearted attempts to negotiate in the summer of 1215, open warfare broke out between the rebel barons and the king and his supporters.
|
|
Cartwright claimed that the prior and William Bickford, presumably an employee, had illegally seized his horse by armed force at Wheaton Aston just before Christmas the previous year. The defendants denied using force and claimed that they had seized the animal as a distraint because Geoffrey had failed to supply workers for the priory demesne in fulfilment of the labour services due from his holdings – a plausible charge at a time of labour shortages. Geoffrey, however, maintained that they had actually seized it because they hoped thereby to defray the 5 mark cost of the prior's view of frankpledge in his demesne of Lapley, Wheaton Aston and Marston – a levy the priory had been extracting from its tenants for some time.
|
|
The first volume of The Law of Distress (Athgabdla) was published in a Harleian Manuscript in 1865 and the second in 1869. It deals with ancient legal issues of Seizure by distraint of property for the satisfaction of debt, also laws related fosterage, tenure and social connections.Introduction to Senchus Mor, and Athzabail: or Law of distress, as contained in the Harleian Manuscripts, Cheri Birkbeck In the law tract Cetharslicht Athgabdla, it states that three noble tribes passed a judgement at a Dál-Criche (territorial assembly) and divided Ireland between them. A Dál was similar to an Aonach, in that it refers to a ritual annual gathering of legislators at a fixed site of ceremonial importance in order, to among other rituals, collectively pass laws.
|
|
The abbots' interpretation of their powers as lords of the manor invaded every corner of their tenant's lives. At a court held on 20 June 1274, for example, two men, John of Romsley and Nicholas Sewal, were given until the next court to decide whether or not they would marry the widows assigned to them by the abbey's cellarer, who managed the proceedings of the manorial court. Immediately afterwards, Roger Ketel of Illey was fined 4 shillings, a large sum, for retaining the abbot's heriot, a feudal relief or death duty. This was the conclusion to a fairly protracted dispute: at the court of 9 May he had been placed in day-to-day distraint, detention with no fixed limit in the abbey prison, because he refused to part with the payment due on his mother-in-law's death.
|
|
So Charles and his advisers developed various schemes to raise additional revenue without recourse to Parliament. A large fiscal deficit had arisen in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Notwithstanding Buckingham's short-lived campaigns against both Spain and France, there was little financial capacity for Charles to wage wars overseas. Throughout his reign Charles was obliged to rely primarily on volunteer forces for defence and on diplomatic efforts to support his sister, Elizabeth, and his foreign policy objective for the restoration of the Palatinate. England was still the least taxed country in Europe, with no official excise and no regular direct taxation. To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called the "Distraint of Knighthood", in abeyance for over a century, which required any man who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king's coronation to be knighted.
|
|
From the above are excepted those women known as penitents or convertites, in whose regard their constitutions shall be observed. # All ecclesiastical judges should refrain from ecclesiastical censures (or interdict), but in civil causes belonging to the ecclesiastical court it is lawful for them (if they judge it expedient) to proceed against all persons and terminate suits with fines assigned to pious places, or distraint of goods, or arrest (by their own or other officers) or deprivation of benefices and other remedies at law. If the execution cannot be made in this way and there is contumacy towards the judge, he may smite them also with the sword of anathema. Since the power of conferring indulgences was granted by Christ to the church and she has used that power, the synod enjoins that the use of indulgences is to be retained in the church and condemns with anathema those who assert that they are useless or deny that the church has the power to grant them.
|
|
Drong and Dal as Synonyms of Oenach, Paul MacCotter Numerous categories or levels of assembly, at which laws were passed existed in ancient Ireland, the highest was the Feis Temrach at Tara (National level), Aonach (National or Regional), Dál (Túath Sept Nobles), Cuirmtig (Túath members) and finally a Tocomra, where a Túath elected their own Taoiseach and Tánaiste. The main purpose of these gatherings was to promulgate and reaffirm the laws. The Chief Ollamh of Ireland coordinated the Feis at Tara, Ard Ollamh at Regional and Ollamh at a Tuath level.Brehon Laws, Page:EB1911 - Volume 04 The earliest reference in the Senchas Már to the reading of the law of Athgabdla at an assembly, took place at the Hill of Uisneach, just before the eve of Bealtaine about a hundred years before the birth of Christ, a uniform law of distraint passed for the whole of Ireland was adopted on the motion of Sen, son of Aigé.
|
|
A crisis was precipitated when, just before the performance of Les Huguenots scheduled for 9 October, Cruvelli drew her fees and disappeared (her second "Flight"), taking with her some compromising letters from M. Fould. A distraint was put on Cruvelli's possessions, and a forfeit of 300,000 francs was threatened, but she did not reappear for a month. La nonne sanglante was performed and was moderately successful with receipts averaging over 6,000 francs per evening, but was widely condemned for its libretto. The absence of Cruvelli prompted Verdi to threaten to cancel the première of the Sicilian Vespers,Letter from Verdi to Roqueplan of 28 October 1854, quoted in Budden 1978, p. 179. and on 6 November Roqueplan, who had run up a deficit of 900,000 francs, was asked to resign, and his adversary Louis Crosnier (former director of the Opéra- Comique) replaced him on the 11th.Huebner 1990, p. 40–41; Harding 1973, p. 87 (900,000 francs); Levin 2009, p. 382 (11 November).
|
|
The distinctive feature of the writ of 1634 was that it was issued, contrary to all precedent, in time of peace. Charles desired to conceal the true aim of his policy, which he knew would be detested by the country, and he accordingly alleged as a pretext for the impost the danger to commerce from pirates, and the general condition of unrest in Europe. The citizens of London immediately claimed exemption under their charter, while other towns argued as to the amount of their assessment; but no resistance on constitutional grounds appears to have been offered to the validity of the writ, and a sum of £104,000 was collected. On October 9, 1635, a second writ of ship tax was issued, directed on this occasion, as in the revoked writ of 1628, to the sheriffs and justices of inland as well as of maritime counties and towns, demanding the sum of £208,000 which was to be obtained by assessment on personal as well as real property, payment to be enforced by distraint.
|
|
Svartenbrandt was arrested and convicted in Bollnäs District Court for aggravated robbery and kidnapping and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Svartenbrandt's 32-year-old accomplice was sentenced to five years in prison and together they would pay just over 430,000 SEK in damages. After five years in Norrtälje Prison, he was released on 29 October 2007 and then published his second book ...men saknar kärlek (2007), and gave lectures to paying audiences in Dalarna. He then talked again about God and distanced himself from his old life. In January 2008, he was arrested for offence against the Swedish Knife Act (brott mot knivlagen) and drug offenses in the mall in his former hometown of Borlänge. In August 2008, he was caught red-handed during a burglary in a summer cottage. In 2008, Svartenbrandt was evicted from his apartment because the rent was not paid, and several distraint attempts was made in 2007 and 2008. On 11 December 2008, Svartenbrandt was stopped by police in Dalkarlsbo in Dalarna.
|
|
Its place was taken by the Kammergericht. The Emperor or a deputy still presided in the court and it was still his personal court; but the members were now officials of the Empire. It was generally the legal members of the council who sat in the Kammergericht. The Kammergericht fell into disuse in the later years of the reign of Frederick III and the creation of a new and efficient court became a matter of pressing necessity, and was one of the most urgent of the reforms which were mooted in the reign of Maximilian I. The "province of the Imperial Chamber", as it came to be gradually defined by statute and use, extended to breaches of the public peace, cases of arbitrary distraint or imprisonment, pleas which concerned the treasury, violations of the Emperor's decrees or the laws passed by the Imperial Diet, disputes about property between immediate tenants of the Empire or the subjects of different rulers, and finally suits against immediate tenants of the Empire, with the exception of criminal charges and matters relating to imperial fiefs, which went to the Aulic Council.
|
|