Hunt & Associates P.C.

Trial by Combat: A Monty Python Skit or a Ninth Amendment Right?

Some might think that trial by combat is now only useful for Monty Python and other comic skits. But take a look at paragraph 26 of this pleading filed recently in a New York case where the defendant, a Staten Island attorney, “. . . demands his common law right to Trial by Combat as against Plaintiffs and their counsel . . .   .”

The ensuing paragraphs of the pleading outline the author’s historical argument that, as a common law right available to Englishmen when the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, the right to trial by combat was retained by the people. The defendant concludes his 54 paragraph Reply with the respectful request, “. . . that the Court permit [him] to dispatch Plaintiffs and their counsel to the Divine Providence of the Maker for Him to exact his Divine Judgment once the Undersigned has released the souls of the Plaintiffs and their counsel from their corporeal bodies, personally and/or by way of a Champion.”

The court pleading is here.

The SI Live.com article by Frank Donnelly which adds context to the pleading and its author are here.

Come to think of it, there are some disputes a good fight could solve more quickly, economically, and fairly than a year or more in court. Then too, there aren’t any appeals from a trial by combat.

© 8/11/2015 Lawrence B. Hunt of Hunt & Associates, P.C.  All rights reserved.

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