Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 43

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Volume 3, Page 43

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[001] in his name, or a judge who has decided improperly, or a private person. If it is the
[002] prince or king or another who has no superior except God,¹ the remedy by assise will
[003] not lie against him; there will only be opportunity for a petition, that he correct and
[004] amend his act.² If he fails so to do, let it suffice him for punishment that he await
[005] God the Avenger, who says, ‘Vengeance is mine and I will repay,’³ unless one says
[006] that the universitas regni and his baronage may and ought to do this in the king's
[007] own court.⁴ But if another is in seisin by the act and disseisin of the prince, immediately
[008] or after a time, though he falls into the assise and is subject to a penalty, or
[009] only to restitution according as seisin has come to him at once or after a time, he
[010] nevertheless may not be sued by the assise without the prince, because, though in
[011] one sense he has committed the disseisin, he has not done so alone but with another,
[012] that is, with the prince, and thus cannot answer without him.⁵ The assise, therefore,
[013] does not proceed. But indirectly and, so to speak, incidentally, even without writ,
[014] the person of the prince may be brought in, to the extent that he amend his deed,
[015] or the injuria will clearly fall upon him. For example, suppose that the assise is
[016] brought only against him to whom the thing was transferred, who is bound both to
[017] restitution and a penalty, or at least to restitution, and he replies that he ought not
[018] to answer without the prince because the prince, by himself or by his people, committed
[019] the injuria, [or] both together did; from then on the act and the injuria will
[020] be on the head of the lord king, who ought to be called the warrantor, so to speak, of
[021] the act, and from then on he can if he wishes amend his act, compelled, so to speak
[022] by the law, which, since he is subject to it, he ought faithfully to observe.⁶ ⁷<If a
[023] bailiff or servant committed the disseisin in the name of the king, the assise must be
[024] taken, but must not proceed to judgment until the king's will is ascertained.>⁸
[025] If one has been disseised by a judge who has decided incorrectly, whether wittingly
[026] or through incompetence,⁹ [how he must proceed will be explained below in the portion
[027] on exceptions.]¹⁰ Several may be bound and fall into the assise just as one, of
[028] whom some, one or several, may be principal disseisors, some secondaries:¹¹ principals,
[029] according as they hold the seized thing in common, before partition,¹² or as it has
[030] been partitioned among several who are guilty of the act as principals, or as it has
[031] passed through several hands immediately after the disseisin, or been divided among
[032] several immediately after it. And as several [or one] may be disseisors, so

Notes

1. Supra ii, 110

2. Supra ii, 33

3. Supra ii, 21; G. Post in Proceed. Third Int. Congress of Medieval Canon Law, 113; W. C. Jordan in L.Q.R., lxxxviii, 25

4. Supra ii, 110; B.N.B., no. 857

5. Infra 118

6. Supra ii, 166; Tierney in Speculum, xxxviii, 316

7. Supra i, 393

8. Supra 35, infra 139

9. Deleted

10. Supra ii, 289, infra 121

11. Supra 41, infra 118

12. Infra 119, 120