Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 199

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 4, Page 199

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] is the warrantor of her dower. While the plea is pending he who holds the two parts
[002] commits felony and is outlawed, before the woman has vouched him to warranty with
[003] respect to the third part, and while those two parts are in the lord king's hand by
[004] reason of his term, a dispute arises between two lords concerning the escheat, and it
[005] is not clear which of them ought to obtain; let the woman's case be put sine die or at a
[006] distant day in suspense until certainty may be had, as [in the roll] of the last eyre of
[007] William of Ralegh in the county of Warwick, near the end of the roll.¹ The same, it is
[008] submitted, ought to be done in the cases put above. [If] when several are vouched to
[009] warranty there is error in the name of one or several, the matter must be treated,
[010] since they are, so to speak, a single body, as though there were error in the names of
[011] all, as may be seen in the case of several demandants or several tenants.²

If one vouches a warrantor who is within his potestas, though he prays it he will not have the aid of the court.

[013] When one vouches to warranty one within his potestas, though he prays aid he will not
[014] have it;³ if he does not produce his warrantor he may well lose. If the warrantor is outside
[015] his potestas, and within the power of the king, no matter where, he will have aid.
[016] But if outside the king's potestas, since the king cannot produce him he will not have
[017] aid, and therefore let the vouchor produce him or lose the thing claimed.⁴

If the warrantor is within a liberty where the king's writ does not run.

[019] [If one has a liberty within which the king's writ does not run,⁵ let the lord be ordered,
[020] by reason of the lordship [of the lord] king⁶ who granted the liberty, to distrain the
[021] warrantor; if he does not, let him be distrained by his lands outside the liberty to
[022] produce him. If he has no lands outside, then, despite the liberty, let the king interpose
[023] his hand because of his default, that right may not fail.]⁷ When a warrantor cannot
[024] be produced without aid, let a writ for summoning the warrantor issue in this
[025] form.

The writ if he cannot produce him without aid.

[027] ⁸‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Summon A. by good summoners to be before our
[028] justices etc. on such a day to warrant to B. so much land with the appurtenances in
[029] such a vill, which C. in the same court before the same justices etc. claims as his right
[030] against the aforesaid B. as to which the same

Notes

1. Not in B.N.B.; roll extant; infra 228

2. Infra 227

3. Supra 191, 193

4. Infra 233; ‘amittat’

5. Infra 235

6. ‘dominium domini regis’

7. Infra 371-2

8. Supra iii, 260