Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 155

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Volume 2, Page 155

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[001] justa causa of acquisition, as where he has made a gift and livery animo transferendi,
[002] he immediately loses and ceases to have both, if he is disseised and ejected against
[003] his will, [though] he loses natural possession at once, he does not lose civil until
[004] in attempting to re-establish himself in seisin he is repulsed, or believing that
[005] he might be so repulsed¹ abandons his seisin and resorts to a superior; he then
[006] ceases to possess. But if he ejects his ejector at once, while he still retains civil
[007] possession, he recovers natural and consequently has both, natural as well as
[008] civil. Thus whenever² one ceases to possess³ the other begins to do so,⁴ as soon as
[009] the [first] ceases, whether it is natural possession alone or natural and civil conjoined.
[010] When one has been ejected and has lost natural possession, if, through
[011] negligence, weakness or acquiescence he permits the wrong to go for some time
[012] unredressed, he loses both, not only natural but civil, since his acquiescence is
[013] ascribed to consent.⁵ Thus the true⁶ lord ceases to possess and the possessor by
[014] force begins to do so. Similarly, if the true lord withdraws from possession, leaving
[015] none of his household behind, he still retains both natural and civil possession,
[016] until such time as another enters against his will, with or without his knowledge.
[017] He then ceases to have rightful natural possession and the intruder begins to have
[018] wrongful natural possession, but the lord retains civil possession until, on his
[019] return, he is repelled⁷ and left without hope of putting himself back into seisin,
[020] or suspects that he would be repelled;⁸ he then loses both and the intruder begins
[021] to have both. If when the intruder once has both he is ejected by the true lord,
[022] without judgment, what is said above of the true lord will then be applicable to
[023] him; [and the true lord, because of his wrongful act, will lose his action⁹ and the
[024] assise, as will be explained below [in the portion] on the assise;¹⁰ but if [the lord]
[025] does this with judgment and by the assise, or without the assise and at once, it
[026] will be otherwise.] ¹¹if by a stranger, let that be done for him which ought to be
[027] done for a true lord as against strangers. ¹²One also loses both [possessions] by
[028] natural death or civil: by natural death he loses civil possession when the soul quits
[029] the body, natural when the body is borne away;¹³ by civil death, he loses both at
[030] once, when he has so assumed the habit of religion that he may not again return to
[031] the world. One may also lose both though he is in possession, though he has not been
[032] ejected, if he is prevented from using and enjoying, or cannot use conveniently
[033] or in the usual way, neither he nor his household, or if another uses without
[034] his consent; the lord retains rightful natural possession and the obstructor or disturber
[035] by long-continued possession, through the true lord's weakness or

Notes

1. D. 41.2.25.2: ‘donec revertentes nos aliquis repellat aut nos ita animo desinamus possidere, quod suspicemur repelli nos posse’; infra iii, 22

2. ‘quandocumque’

3. Om: ‘et’

4. Supra 124

5. Infra iii, 23

6. ‘verus’

7. Infra iii, 18

8. D. 41.2.25.2: supra n. 1

9. ‘exceptionem’(?)

10. Infra iii, 25

11. Om: ‘Item ... habere inceperit,’ a connective

12. New paragraph

13. Supra 130, infra iii, 270