Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 128

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Volume 2, Page 128

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[001] non-lords, to one person or two, both may be revoked by the true lord, but as
[002] between the donees¹ he will be preferred who was first in seisin.² The same is true
[003] of two to whom a lord or a non-lord makes a gift and livery: whence this verse--
[004] A thing sold by lord or non-lord to two,
[005] the first in by livery is the stronger in law.
[006] ³<A thing is acquired by livery, ‘for by liveries and usucapions etc.’⁴ ⁵With respect
[007] to the general rule that possession is acquired by livery, it is indeed regularly true
[008] that dominium is not acquired inter vivos without an induction into [vacant]
[009] possession; nevertheless, it sometimes is properly acquired without possession being
[010] vacant. The words ‘into vacant possession’ are used demonstratively and not
[011] causally. I have said ‘regularly,’ because sometimes dominium passes without livery,
[012] acquiescence being sufficient, as where I sell you what I have lent you or placed
[013] in your custody for a term or for life, or where⁶ what you have for life I sell to
[014] you in fee, and so change [your] causa possidendi; this may be done without change
[015] of possession.⁷ For since I allow my thing to be yours by virtue of another causa,
[016] or to remain with you, I am taken to transfer it. And so with respect to goods in
[017] warehouses. The same may be said when the thing given or sold, which the seller
[018] or donor says he delivers, is within the view of the parties, as where [the buyer]
[019] is taken into an area or field. The retention of a usufruct [in one's own land] and
[020] the delivery of a document attesting the lease and the term is taken as the equivalent
[021] of livery, and the same may be said when I hire from you the thing I gave you
[022] but did not deliver; I am taken to transfer it. So if I accept the price of the thing
[023] claimed, as where I claim my property from you by suit; if the thing is ready at
[024] hand I transfer the property to the purchaser,⁸ [or] if he later takes possession with
[025] my consent.⁹ If a thing is not completely¹⁰ vacant it may be transferred as regards
[026] the vacant part, as where I have¹¹ dominium and proprietas and the free tenement
[027] and another the usufruct; what is mine I may transfer without damage to the
[028] usufructuary.¹² And I may also transfer what is mine if I have the property and
[029] another the free tenement, as where one holds in dower or in some other way for
[030] life;¹³ what is mine etc., provided he who thus [holds] partly in my name and
[031] partly in his own¹⁴ is attorned to the donee as he was to the donor and the donee
[032] attorns himself [to him] as his warrantor, so that neither

Notes

1. ‘donatarios’

2. Infra 138, iii, 29

3. Supra i, 379

4. C. 2 3.20

5-9. This long addicio (also nn. 17-21) with additions and modifications is from Azo, Summa Inst. 2.1, nos. 56 et seq.; Woodbine in Yale L. Jour. xxxi, 843-4; infra v

6. ‘vel si’

7. Supra 104, 126

8. Azo: ‘in reum ... vel reus postea’

10. ‘omnino’ for ‘animo’

11. ‘habuero’

12. Supra 53, 57, 92, infra 138

13. ‘ut si in dote vel alio modo ad vitam,’ from line 26; supra 56, 103, 106, infra 129, iii, 162

14. Not Br.'s usual view