Another suit, of a similar nature to that described above, was brought in the audiencia in 1713 against Juan de Rivas, who had been assigned two encomiendas in Leyte and Cebú, respectively, by the governor, thus depriving one Saramiento who had held them formerly. The plaintiff claimed that he had made great improvements on these estates, spending all his income thereon, and as yet had received no profits from the lands. He petitioned, therefore, that these encomiendas should be bestowed upon him for another term. [178] The audiencia withheld its judgment on this case, referring it to the Council. That body, after seeking the advice of the royal fiscal and contador, recommended to the king that Saramiento should be allowed to retain the encomiendas for another term, and it was accordingly done, a royal order to that effect being expedited on May 29, 1715.
It is notable how frequently the action of the audiencia or that of the governor was confirmed by the Council of the Indies. In most of the cases which have been described, the original papers, including letters, autos and testimonios, each expediente [179] containing from one hundred to two thousand pages, are marked "seen by the Council", "action of the governor confirmed", or "no action to be taken"; the original decisions being thus confirmed. It may be concluded, therefore, from this brief study that the audiencia had appellate jurisdiction as a court of law over suits involving encomiendas, and, furthermore, that the tribunal acting in that capacity placed a very effective and definite check on the governor in his executive control over encomiendas.
Property suits, aside from those involving encomiendas, were numerous. One noted case may be cited in which the heirs of Governor Fausto Cruzat y Góngora in 1703 brought suit to recover money owed by Gaspar Sánchez and Bernardo de Guirós to the ex-governor. The audiencia failed to award the sum, which approximated 8000 pesos. The case was appealed to the Council of the Indies and the decision was reversed, the plaintiffs being awarded the money originally sued for, with costs of suit. A similar case was brought by the children and heirs of Governor Bustamante against Juan de Nebra, general of the galleon. The case was tried in the audiencia and the tribunal decided in favor of the defendant. The case was appealed to the Council of the Indies and the decision was reversed. [180] In 1736 Gaspar Thomé, a Frenchman, sued the estate of a deceased debtor, Juan de Olerte, for 2000 pesos. [181] The case was appealed to the Council of the Indies, and fully two hundred pages of documentary material exist, carefully annotated and digested, to show how thoroughly and with what formality a suit of even that small import was tried. We have already noted the tendency of the government to discourage the appeal of property suits to the Council of the Indies. The jurisdiction of the audiencia was final, for the most part, in suits involving sums from 200 to 6000 pesos.