The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_P._ I see no reason for that; for the client is not in fault, who never
begins a suit but by the advice of his counsel, learned in the law, whom
he pays for his counsel given. Is not this the fault of his counsellor?
Nor when a judge in the Common Pleas hath given an erroneous sentence,
is it always likely that the judge of the King’s Bench will reverse the
judgment, (though there be no question, but as you may find in Bracton
and other learned men, he has power to do it); because being professors
of the same common-law, they are persuaded, for the most part, to give
the same judgments. For example: if Sir Edward Coke, in the last term
that he sat as Lord Chief Justice in the Court of Common Pleas, had
given an erroneous judgment, is it likely that when he was removed, and
made Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, he would therefore have
reversed the said judgment? It is possible he might, but not very
likely. And therefore I do believe there is some other power, by the
King constituted, to reverse erroneous judgments, both in the King’s
Bench and in the Court of Common Pleas.
_L._ I think not; for there is a statute to the contrary, made 4 _Henry
IV_, cap. 23, in these words: Whereas, as well in plea real, as in plea
personal, after judgment in the court of our Lord the King, the parties
be made to come upon grievous pain sometimes before the King himself,
sometimes before the King’s council, and sometimes to the Parliament, to
answer thereof anew, to the great impoverishing of the parties
aforesaid, and to the subversion of the common-law of the land, it is
ordained and established, that after judgment given in the court of our
Lord the King, the parties and their heirs shall be there in peace,
until the judgment be undone by attaint, or by error, if there be error,
as hath been used by the laws in the times of the King’s progenitors.