A summons (also in Britain known as a claim form) is a legal document issued by a court (a judicial summons) or by an administrative agency of government (an administrative summons) for various purposes.
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A judicial summons is addressed to a defendant in a legal proceeding. Typically, the summons will announce to the person to whom it is directed that a legal proceeding has been started against that person, and that a file has been started in the court records. The summons announces a date by which the defendant(s) must either appear in court, or respond in writing to the court or the opposing party or parties. The summons is the descendant of the writ of the common law.
In England and Wales, the term writ of summons for the originating document in civil proceedings has been replaced with the term Claim Form by the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR). This is part of the reforms to simplify legal terminology.
In most U.S. jurisdictions, the service of a summons is in most cases required for the court to have personal jurisdiction over the party who is being "hauled" into court involuntarily.[1] The process by which a summons is served is called service of process. The form and content of service in the federal system is governed by Rule 4 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the rules of many state courts are similar. The federal summons is usually issued by the clerk of the court. In many states the summons may be issued by an attorney, though some states use filing as the means to commence an action and the summons must be filed in those cases in order to be effective. Other jurisdictions may only require that the summons be filed after it is served on the defendants.
A citation, traffic violation ticket or notice to appear is a type of summons prepared and served at the scene of the occurrence by a law enforcement official, compelling the appearance of a defendant before the local magistrate within a certain period of time to answer for a minor traffic infraction or misdemeanor or other summary offence. Failure to appear within the allotted period of time is a separate crime of failure to appear.
One example of an administrative summons is found in the tax law of the United States. The Internal Revenue Code authorizes the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to issue a summons for a taxpayer—or any person having custody of books of account relating to a business of a taxpayer—to appear before the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate (generally, this means the IRS employee who issued the summons) at the time and place named in the summons.[2] The person summoned may be required to produce books, papers, records, or other data, and to give testimony under oath before an IRS employee.[3]
The IRS is also empowered to issue the section 7602 summons for the purpose of "inquiring into any offense connected with the administration or enforcement of the internal revenue laws."[4]
The summons may be enforced by a court order[5], and the law provides a criminal penalty of up to one year in prison or a fine, or both, for failure to obey the summons,[6] except that the person summoned may, to the extent applicable, assert a privilege against self incrimination or other evidentiary privileges, if applicable.
The Wiktionary definition of summons
"summons". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.| A
Summons by |
Written on the adoption of Pinckney's Resolutions in the House of Representatives, and the passage of Calhoun's "Bill for excluding Papers written or printed, touching the subject of Slavery, from the U. S. Post-office," in the Senate of the United States. Mr. Pinckney's resolutions were in brief that Congress had no authority to interfere in any way with slavery in the States; that it ought not to interfere with it in the District of Columbia, and that all resolutions to that end should be laid on the table without printing. Mr. Calhoun's bill made it a penal offence for post-masters in any State, District, or Territory "knowingly to deliver, to any person whatever, any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other printed paper or pictorial representation, touching the subject of slavery, where, by the laws of the said State, District, or Territory, their circulation was prohibited."
Men of the North-land! where's the manly spirit
Of the true-hearted and the unshackled gone?
Sons of old freemen, do we but inherit
Their names alone?
Is the old Pilgrim spirit quenched within us,
Stoops the strong manhood of our souls so low,
That Mammon's lure or Party's wile can win us
To silence now?
Now, when our land to ruin's brink is verging,
In God's name, let us speak while there is time!
Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging,
Silence is crime!
What! shall we henceforth humbly ask as favors
Rights all our own? In madness shall we barter,
For treacherous peace, the freedom Nature gave us,
God and our charter?
Here shall the statesman forge his human fetters,
Here the false jurist human rights deny,
And in the church, their proud and skilled abettors
Make truth a lie?
Torture the pages of the hallowed Bible,
To sanction crime, and robbery, and blood?
And, in Oppression's hateful service, libel
Both man and God?
Shall our New England stand erect no longer,
But stoop in chains upon her downward way,
Thicker to gather on her limbs and stronger
Day after day?
Oh no; methinks from all her wild, green mountains;
From valleys where her slumbering fathers lie;
From her blue rivers and her welling fountains,
And clear, cold sky;
From her rough coast, and isles, which hungry Ocean
Gnaws with his surges; from the fisher's skiff,
With white sail swaying to the billows' motion
Round rock and cliff;
From the free fireside of her untought farmer;
From her free laborer at his loom and wheel;
From the brown smith-shop, where, beneath the hammer,
Rings the red steel;
From each and all, if God hath not forsaken
Our land, and left us to an evil choice,
Loud as the summer thunderbolt shall waken
A People's voice.
Startling and stern! the Northern winds shall bear it
Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave;
And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it
Within her grave.
Oh, let that voice go forth! The bondman sighing
By Santee's wave, in Mississippi's cane,
Shall feel the hope, within his bosom dying,
Revive again.
Let it go forth! The millions who are gazing
Sadly upon us from afar shall smile,
And unto God devout thanksgiving raising
Bless us the while.
Oh for your ancient freedom, pure and holy,
For the deliverance of a groaning earth,
For the wronged captive, bleeding, crushed, and lowly,
Let it go forth!
Sons of the best of fathers! will ye falter
With all they left ye perilled and at stake?
Ho! once again on Freedom's holy altar
The fire awake.
Prayer-strenthened for the trial, come together,
Put on the harness for the moral fight,
And, with the blessing of your Heavenly Father,
Maintain the right
SUMMONS (Fr. semonce, from semonner or semondre, Lat. summonere, summonitio), in English law (I) a command by a superior authority to attend at a given time or place or to do some public duty; (2) a document containing such command, and not infrequently also expressing the consequences entailed by neglect to obey. The oral summons or citation seems to have preceded the written summons in England, just as in Roman law in jus vocatio existed for centuries before the libellus conventionis. The antiquity and importance of the summons as a legal form in England is shown by the presence of the "sompnour," or summoner of the ecclesiastical court, as one of the characters in the Canterbury Tales, and in The History of Sir John Oldcastle, where the sumner is made to eat a citation issued from the bishop of Rochester's court. The term is used with reference to a demand for the attendance of a person in the high court of parliament. As regards English courts of justice it is equivalent to what in the civil and canon law and in Scots law, and in English courts deriving their procedure from those sources, is known as "citation." That term is still preserved in English ecclesiastical courts and in matrimonial causes.
It is an essential principle of justice that a court should not. adjudicate upon any question without giving the parties to be affected or bound by the adjudication the opportunity of being heard and of bringing their witnesses before the court. The most usual term in English law for the process by which attendance is commanded or required is the "summons." Civil Proceedings. - In the High Court of Justice, civil actions are begun by obtaining from the officers of the court a document known as a "writ of summons." In this document are stated the names of the parties and the nature of the claim made (which in the case of liquidated sums of money must be precise and particular). It is sealed and issued to the party suing it out, and served on the opposing party, not by an officer of the court but by an agent of the plaintiff. The tenor of the writ is to require the defendant to appear and answer the claim, and to indicate the consequences of non-appearance, viz. adjudication in default.
Many proceedings in the High Court and some in the county court are initiated by forms of summons different from the writ of summons. Of those issued in the High Court three classes merit mention: I. For determining interlocutory matters of practice and procedure arising in "a pending cause or matter." These are now limited as far as possible to a general summons for directions, introduced in 1883 so as to discourage frequent and expensive applications to the masters or judges of the High Court on questions of detail. These summonses are sealed and issued on application at the offices of the High Court. The matters raised are dealt with by a master or judge in chambers summarily. In matters of practice and procedure there is no appeal from a judge at chambers without leave from him or from the court of appeal.
2. For determining certain classes of questions with more despatch and less cost than is entailed by action or petition. This kind of summons is known as an "originating summons," because under it proceedings may be originated without writ for certain kinds of relief specified in the rules (R. S. C., O. 55, r. 3). The originating summons may be used in all divisions of the High Court, but is chiefly employed in the chancery division, where it to a great extent supersedes actions for the administration of trusts or of the estates of deceased persons;1 and for the foreclosure of mortgages a similar but not identical procedure was created by the Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874, and the Conveyancing Act 1881, with reference to questions of title, &c., to real property. In the king's bench and probate divisions the originating summons is used for determining summarily questions as to property between husband and wife, or the right to custody of children, and many other matters (0.54, rr. 4 B-4 F). The proceedings on an originating summons are conducted summarily at chambers without pleadings, and the evidence is usually written. In the chancery division where the questions raised are important the summons is adjourned into court. An appeal lies to the court of appeal from decisions on originating summonses.
The forms of summonses and the procedure thereon in civil cases in the High Court are regulated by the Rules of the Supreme Court 1883 to 1907.
3. Certain proceedings on the crown side of the king's bench division are begun by summons, e.g. applications for bail; and in vacation writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition and certiorari are asked for by summons as the full court is not in session. (See Crown Office Rules, 1906).
In the county courts an action is begun by plaint and summons. Two kinds of summons are in use - the ordinary summons used for every form of county court action, and the default summons, which is an optional remedy of the plaintiff in actions for debts or liquidated demands exceeding £5, and in all actions for the price or hire of goods 1 A similar practice existed before 1883 under the powers given by 15 & 16 Vict. c. 86, but was very limited in its operation, as it applied simply to the personal estate of a deceased person.
sold or let to the defendant to be used in the way of his calling. It may also issue by leave of the judge or registrar in other cases, with the single exception that no leave can be given in claims under £5 where the claim is not for the price or hire of goods sold or let as above, if the affidavit of debt discloses that the defendant is a servant or person engaged in manual labour. The advantage of a default summons is that judgment is entered for the plaintiff without hearing unless the defendant gives notice of defence within a limited time. A default summons must as a rule be served personally on the defendant; an ordinary summons need not be served personally, but may in most cases be delivered to a person at the defendant's house or place of business. A summons is also issued to a witness in the county court. Forms of summons are given in the County Court Rules 1903. These include certain special forms used in admiralty and interpleader actions and in proceedings under the Friendly Societies Acts and the Married Women's Property Acts. Summonses issued from county courts are usually served by a bailiff of the court and not by the party suing them out.
Justices of the peace have power to issue summonses to persons accused of indictable offences, or of offences summarily punishable, for their attendance, for preliminary inquiry or summary trial according to the nature of the charge, and also to persons against whom a complaint of a civil nature within the justices' jurisdiction is made. On failure to attend on summons, attendance may be enforced by warrant; and in the case of indictable offences this is the course always adopted. The forms in use for indictable offences are scheduled to the Indictable Offences Act 1848, and those for other purposes to the Summary Jurisdiction Rules 1886 (see Summary Jurisdiction). The attendance of witnesses before justices of the peace may be required by witness summons, enforced in the event of disobedience by arrest under warrant (see Witness).
The attendance of jurors in civil or criminal trials is required by jury summons sent by registered post.
In courts for the trial of indictable offences the attendance of the accused and of the witnesses is not secured by summons. Both ordinarily attend in obedience to recognizances entered into before justices for their attendance. In the absence of recognizances the attendance of the accused is enforced by bench warrant of the court of trial, or by justices' warrant, and that of the witnesses by writ of subpoena issued from the crown office of the High Court. Disobedience to the writ is punished as contempt of court.
Summons is a term confined in strictness to the beginning of an action in the Court of Session. The summons is a writ in the sovereign's name, signed by a writer to the signet, citing the defender to appear and answer the claim. The "will of the summons" is the conclusion of a writ containing the will of the sovereign or judge, charging the executive officer to cite the party whose attendance is required. It is regulated by several acts, e.g. The Debtors (Scotland) Act 1838 (I & 2 Vict. c. 114) and the Court of Session (Scotland) Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. Ioo). A privileged summons is one where the induciae are shortened to six days against defenders within Scotland (Court of Session [Scotland] Act 1825, s. 53). Defects in the summons are cured by amendment or by a supplementary summons. The summons goes more into detail than the English writ of summons, though it no longer states, as it once did, the grounds of action, now stated in the condescendence and pursuer's pleas in law annexed to the summons. The form of the summons is regulated by the Court of Session (Scotland) Act 1850, s. 1 and schedule A. After the action has been set on foot by summons, the attendance of the parties and witnesses is obtained by citation. The Citation Amendment Acts. 1871 and 1882 give additional facilities for the execution of citations in civil cases by means of registered letters, instead of by the old process known as "lock hole citation." In the act of 1871 the term "summons" is used to denote part of the process of inferior civil courts.
In the sheriff court an action is now begun by writ (Sheriff Courts [Scotland] Act 1907), and not as formerly by petition or summons. In criminal cases the summons of the accused, or of witnesses, is by warrant of citation, and of jurors by citation sent by registered post (1868, c. 95, s. io).
In Ireland summonses are used substantially for the same purposes and in the same manner as in England, but generally speaking under statutes and rules applying only to the Irish courts.
(W. F. C.)
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