Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 334

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 4, Page 334

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] and D. with respect to so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill, of which
[002] the aforesaid C. and D. claim two parts against E. as their rightful share which falls
[003] to them from the inheritance of such a one whose heirs they are, as to which the
[004] aforesaid E. says that he is unwilling to reply to the said C. and D. without the aforesaid
[005] A. and B. [their parceners], as he says. And have there the summoners and this
[006] writ. Witness etc.’

If one of the parceners dies when all are named in the writ.

[008] If all are named and begin to sue together and one of them dies, the writ falls; a new
[009] beginning must be made by another writ in the person of his heir, at once or after a
[010] time, according as the heir is under age or not. But what if one of the parceners after
[011] he has begun to sue commits felony or becomes a leper, or a lunatic and of unsound
[012] mind? We must see whether the plea ought to remain or proceed, whether he is the
[013] demandant or tenant.

When one of the parceners holds the whole inheritance.

[015] When there are several co-heir parceners and one or several hold the whole inheritance,
[016] and one parcener (or several) claims against the one or several tenant parceners,
[017] there will be one action.¹ If several claim, they need not all be named in one
[018] writ, since the actions are different, because each claims his own part, that which falls
[019] to him, free of any other parcener, as though one parcener claimed against the one
[020] or several parceners. In that case the tenant parcener will not have the view, because
[021] [the other] cannot guess which part of the common inheritance may fall to him. But
[022] the equivalent may be made him, as where [the other] says ‘I claim my rightful
[023] portion which falls to me of the whole inheritance of which such a one my ancestor
[024] died seised as of fee.’²

If the inheritance is divided among the parceners.

[026] It sometimes happens that when an inheritance is divided among parceners, and
[027] when one has his part, he loses his possession, or makes a gift subject to some condition,
[028] by which, after a time, it is to revert to him, and though by that condition it
[029] ought to revert to him, another wrongfully puts himself in seisin and as tenant objects
[030] against him that he has parceners; the exception will not avail, because after

Notes

1. ‘una erit action,’ from line 20

2. Supra 181