Records of thousands of cases exist to show the different kinds of suits tried judicially in the audiencia. Civil and criminal matters came up in the tribunal as in all other courts of law, and hence, as such, merit only passing attention. Among civil cases possibly the most typical were those relating to encomiendas. It must be borne in mind that the Spaniard, however mistakenly from the theoretical point of view, regarded the encomiendas as property in the same sense as a modern farmer regards his farm as property. He paid a rental or tax to the government, he engaged in agriculture for gain, and, as we have seen, the moral duty of protecting, uplifting, or educating the Indians rested but lightly on his conscience. Therefore, as these cases are discussed in the following pages, the value of the property and not the treatment of the Indians on the encomiendas is the first consideration. As already stated, the law of Malines reserved for the Council of the Indies final action in all encomienda suits involving more than one thousand ducats. [174]
Many suits involving encomiendas came up prior to the establishment of the audiencia; the defects apparent in the trial of these cases by the governor show clearly the need of an audiencia at that time. The earliest case noted in this connection was prosecuted in 1580 by the asesor of the governor against Doña Lucía de Loaxa, the widow of an encomendero, with the object of dispossessing her of an encomienda held at Butuán, Mindanao. [175] She was charged with having nullified her title by marriage to another encomendero, since the law forbade married women to hold encomiendas. In her defense she alleged that the desire of the governor to enforce the law was only pretense, since many married women in the Philippines held encomiendas. She stated that the governor desired to deprive her of her property in order that he might bestow it upon a friend. This case was carried to the Council of the Indies, and it illustrates the effectiveness of the law of Malines, which took from the governor authority over a case in which he was interested and gave final jurisdiction to the tribunal in Spain. The papers pertaining to this case were returned to the governor with orders to do as the law commanded. The defendant was accordingly removed from the encomienda.