Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 354

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Volume 3, Page 354

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[001] may bring different assises for the same thing on the deaths of two ancestors at one
[002] and the same time, in which case the last seisin must be adjudicated [first]. But an
[003] assise is not to be taken on an assise on the seisin of two ancestors between the same
[004] persons with respect to the same thing, as where land is given to A. and B. his wife;
[005] if A. dies first, seised, an assise on the death of A. does not lie for the heir during the
[006] life of B., nor conversely. But when both die, an assise of mortdancestor lies for the
[007] heir on the seisin of him who last died seised, but if the assise finds against the heir,
[008] because of a gift made by him who last died seised, no recourse can be had to another
[009] assise on the death of him who died first.¹ If land is given to one thus, in maritagium
[010] with his wife; no assise of mortdancestor lies except at the death of the mother, and
[011] hence if he takes nothing by the assise on the death of the mother, he cannot have
[012] recourse to the seisin of the father by the assise. The assise is not to be taken on an
[013] assise in an assise of darrein presentment if the exception that it was taken at another
[014] time is raised. If it is taken in error, when no mention was made of the first, a conviction
[015] will lie, for the second, not the first, though faith is to be placed in neither
[016] of them de jure. In assises to recognize utrum, an assise will never be taken on an
[017] assise, though sometimes a conviction lies, because it determines the right and possession
[018] and immediately passes over into the authority of res judicata, which provides
[019] an exception.

That a conviction is not to be taken on a conviction.

[021] A conviction must not be taken on a conviction, any more than an assise on an assise.
[022] Hence we must see, if a conviction follows a conviction, whether it is the same assise
[023] as to which a conviction was formerly taken, the same thing or a different one, and
[024] whether between the same persons or different ones.² If it is one and the same person,
[025] the same thing and the same assise, a conviction will never be taken on a conviction,
[026] though emendation follows in another way, in the form of certification by examination,
[027] as was seen in [the portion] on the taking of assises.³ If the persons are different,
[028] the things and the assises different, as may often be seen by the records, a conviction
[029] may well follow a conviction. From the taking of one assise sometimes one conviction
[030] follows, sometimes two, as is evident, according as the jurors give to or take away
[031] from one party the entire thing the plaintiff has put in his view or part of what he has
[032] put in his view. If the jurors, where they ought to have given or taken away the whole,
[033] give or take away part,⁴ two convictions follow, as may be seen by an example. A.
[034] puts two carucates of land in his view

Notes

1. Supra 272

2. Reading: ‘utrum inter easdem personas vel diversas’

3. Supra 349, 350

4. ‘Si iuratores . . . abstulerunt,’ from last lines