Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 97

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Volume 3, Page 97

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[001] whether he knows of it or not, is absent or present, asleep or awake, as explained more
[002] fully elsewhere.>¹ If in his own name, he may be in seisin rightfully or² wrongfully:
[003] rightfully, as where he was in seisin of his own land in his own name, in fee or for life or
[004] by judgment;³ for such persons the assise of novel disseisin lies properly; wrongfully,
[005] as where he was in by disseisin or intrusion. ⁴<But only⁵ wrongfully with respect to
[006] him who has right; rightfully as to another, who has no right.> Thus in order to know
[007] whether one has been rightfully or wrongfully disseised, we must see [if] he was formerly
[008] in seisin rightfully or wrongfully, according as the thing is his own or another's.
[009] It is clear that, with respect to having restitution, he possesses rightfully as against
[010] all who uses his own right, [‘his right,’ as where he has been enfeoffed in fee or [holds]
[011] for life by a title of some kind.] and that if he is ejected wrongfully and without judgment
[012] he will recover seisin, because he was rightfully is seisin in his own name [The
[013] assise lies for a bondsman as for a free man, for a bondsman may have a free tenement
[014] under proper circumstances. One may possess rightfully in his own name as of a
[015] usufruct, not as of a free tenement, as a fructuary, a usuary or one who holds at will,
[016] but the assise as of a free tenement does not lie for such persons, by a writ of disseisin,
[017] but [they are aided] by another writ, that their term be restored.] and of his own
[018] property.⁶ And as one rightfully possesses his own property, he may possess another's
[019] property rightfully, as where, through some causa of acquisition, as by gift or sale, he
[020] is rightfully in seisin through a non-lord; he possesses rightfully and wrongfully, but
[021] in different respects: rightfully as against his feoffor and all others who have no right;
[022] wrongfully as against him who has right, that is, the true lord. One may possess
[023] wrongfully as against a true lord, whom he disseised wrongfully and without judgment,
[024] or whose tenement he entered by intrusion or disseisin, and rightfully as
[025] against all who have neither right nor action, whether he who committed the disseisin
[026] or intrusion is a bondsman or a free man, for if he is disseised at once⁷ by those
[027] who have no right, he will recover by the assise, but as against the true lord if he is at
[028] once re-ejected he will not. But if that is done after a time, when he has been so long in
[029] seisin through the negligence of the disseisee that he may not be ejected without
[030] judgment, he will recover against the true lord, because he was ejected without
[031] judgment. And since he can recover against him who has right, it is evident a fortiori
[032] that he ought to recover against those who have no right. And so one acquires a
[033] causa and a title of possession through time.

Notes

1. Supra ii, 87, 96

2. ‘vel’

3. Infra 98

4. Supra i, 396

5. ‘tantum’

6. Om: ‘hoc’

7. ‘incontinenti’