In the legal procedures, in particular, at that time, a party to a suit requested a hearing on certain dates and the person in charge of the case such as a magistrate decided on whether to approve the dates; thus, the lawsuit was likely to stop for years if he rejected the request.
特に当時の訴訟手続は、訴訟当事者からの開催要求に対して奉行人などの訴訟担当者がその日程の可否を決めるという手続を取っていたため、担当者が拒絶すれば何年も訴訟が中断される恐れがあった。