Awww Rats!In the 16th Century in the Village of Autun in France, the rat problem was certainly getti

Awww Rats!In the 16th Century in the Village of Autun in France, the rat problem was certainly getting out of hand, to the point that fields were stripped of crops, food stores were decimated, and disease was running rampant.  In 1510, fed up with the mayhem, the local ecclesiastical court charged rats with felonious destruction of crops and property.  They drew up a writ of summons ordering the rats to appear in court, coating it in grease to attract the filthy animals and leaving it out in the open so that they would see it.  On the day of the trial, the rats failed to show for court, which would have necessitated a summary ruling against them by the judge.  However, the defense attorney appointed to represent the rats was a brilliant lawyer named Bartholomew Chassenee.  Chassenee argued that his clients were great in number and spread out among a large area. Thus it was insufficient to notify them all with a single summons. So the court adjourned, and several priests were given the task of going town to town, or wander the countryside, shouting the summons so that all rats could hear. When the court re-adjourned, the rats still didn’t show. It seemed that the rats were in deep legal trouble (whatever that may be), however Chassenee had a trick up his sleeve. He argued that the reason why his clients didn’t show was because the journey to court posed a substantial danger, what with all the cats, owls, hawks, and other predator species in the area.  Thus, it was unreasonable to demand that they be summoned to court if it posed a threat to life and limb.To take time to come up with a rebuttal to Chassenee’s argument, the court adjourned to mull things over.  A date to resume the case was never set. Bartholomew Chassenee had a successful career as an attorney, serving in many “animal trials” and defending humans as well. Chassanee’s argument that you could not summon a person if it endangers life set an important legal precedent, although today it is mostly applied to humans with health conditions or people in hiding from organized crime. -- source link

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