Vallejos v Commissioner of Registration
On 30 September 2011, Justice Johnson Lam of the Court of First Instance of the High Court (CFI) ruled in Vallejos' case that existing legislation restricting FDHs from qualifying for permanent residence contravened the Hong Kong Basic Law. Lam also found that Vallejos and Domingo, but not the three other applicants, had fulfilled the condition of taking Hong Kong as their only permanent home and being ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for seven years. The Court of Appeal of the High Court overturned the CFI's decision on Vallejos' case on 28 March 2012. Vallejos and Domingo then jointly appealed to the Court of Final Appeal (CFA), which heard their case on 26–28 February 2013; the CFA rejected their appeal on 25 March 2013.
Judges of the Plains
Judges of the Plains, originally the judicial official Spanish and later Mexican officials called the Jueces del Campo, were judges that decided all disputes over ownership of cattle, horses, and other livestock. They attended all the yearly roundups and branding of cattle (rodeos), and horses (recogidas), where their decisions were final, with no appeal. The Juez del Campo was also a law enforcement officer in cases of theft of livestock, fraudulent brands or certificates of ownership. The laws concerning livestock were mostly traditional, handed down from decisions established during the Spanish Empire in the Americas and from Spain before that. The office was held for a year and was unpaid, taken up for the honor, usually by landowners with large holdings in the district.