Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 409

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Volume 3, Page 409

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[Of appointing a forester] because of destruction and waste; of the provision of a penalty because of waste.

[002] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Know that because of the destruction which was
[003] done in the wood and in the land which A. of N. holds in dower in such a vill of the
[004] inheritance of B. of N., it was provided in our court before our justices that the same
[005] B. may appoint his forester for keeping the aforesaid wood, so that the aforesaid A.
[006] may have there nothing except her rightful estovers for burning, building and
[007] fencing on the land she holds in dower of the inheritance of the said B. in the same vill,
[008] only by the view and livery of B.'s foresters. (If she continues incorrigible in the
[009] lands, houses, gardens or pastures, let this clause then be added ‘it was further
[010] provided in our same court that the aforesaid B. there appoint his servant to take
[011] care that the aforesaid A. cause no destruction in the houses, gardens and pastures,
[012] and that she take from the men of that land only the rightful dues and services, which
[013] they ought to and are accustomed to do.’) And therefore we order you not to hinder
[014] the aforesaid B. from appointing his forester (or ‘his servant’) as said above, lest
[015] for your default we hear [further] complaint thereon. Witness etc.’

It is important whether one commits waste in his own property or another's.

[017] There is property which is one's own, and that which is more completely one's own;
[018] another's, and that which is more completely another's. ‘More completely one's
[019] own,’ [as] where in an estate one has the rights of possession and property; if he
[020] commits waste therein it will not be a wrong to anyone (though it will cause damage
[021] to himself) unless a servitude forbidding it is constituted by the modus of the gift,
[022] that he may not. ‘One's own,’ as where a man holds for his life only, where the tenant
[023] has only the free tenement and another the proprietas. Here the tenant uses what is
[024] in a way his own, because of the free tenement, to the extent of rightful estovers,
[025] and thus commits no waste or injuria by using within measure. But if he exceeds
[026] due measure by using and taking more than rightful estovers, he uses, so to speak,
[027] another's property,¹ and the waste will thus be wrongful, unless it is so slight that
[028] no inquest is to be taken, as [in the roll] of Trinity term in the fifteenth year of king
[029] Henry in the county of Bedford, [the case] of Peter Peivre.² What is to be adjudged
[030] waste and what not because it is grave or trifling, depends on local rules and custom.
[031] ‘Another's,’ as where one has an estate in his hand by reason of wardship, in which,
[032] because

Notes

1. Supra 153

2. B.N.B., no. 607; C.R.R., xiv, no. 1785