Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 294

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Volume 2, Page 294

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[001] for he shall not defend himself by the exception of long use.¹ If, for whatever
[002] reason, actions are available to heirs or against heirs, they may be called transmissible,
[003] since they pass to heirs or against them.²

Some actions are in simplum.

[005] ³Some actions are for the recovery of single damages, others for double, others
[006] triple, others quadruple.⁴ [Actions are single or double], and thus they may lie
[007] either against a single person or several,⁵ according as they are penal or recuperatory
[008] [or penal and recuperatory]. From a single delict several actions may arise against
[009] one or several; all may sometimes be determined by one action.⁶ Several actions may
[010] lie for one person against another, of which one will be prejudicial and preliminary
[011] and must be determined first.⁷ Two actions may be contained in one libellus of which
[012] one is in personam the other in rem, and each of them will be single and separate.⁸
[013] Some actions are direct, others indirect;⁹ others are counter-actions.¹⁰ Some are
[014] universal, others general and others singular.¹¹ Some are common, others individual,
[015] according as the thing sought is held in common or privately owned.

Of civil actions in rem, [some are on the possession, others on the property].

[017] Of actions in rem, some are founded on the possession, others on the property, for
[018] there is the possession of a thing and the proprietas.¹² ¹³Of civil actions in rem [on
[019] the property, some are for the recovery of a corporeal thing], as rei vindicatio,
[020] when one alleges that some corporeal thing belongs to him, as this slave, this
[021] estate, this horse, this garment, [others for the recovery of an incorporeal thing],
[022] one being confessoria, the other negatoria.¹⁴ The actio confessoria is that in which
[023] you allege that ¹⁵you have a right to go over your neighbour's land or to draw
[024] water on it¹⁶ and the like without his permission. It is called an action in rem
[025] because you are claiming your incorporeal res, that is, the right of going over his
[026] land, and confessory because it is framed in affirmative words. The actio negatoria
[027] is one which the lord of an estate institutes against you, one who customarily
[028] crosses his land, alleging that you have no right to do so.¹⁷ This is said to be an
[029] action in rem because by it the owner of the estate vindicates his liberty. Actions
[030] of this sort do not lie for the ownership of a thing but of a right, [as] praedial
[031] servitudes. ¹⁸<Of actions in rem [on the possession] ¹⁹some are for recovering possession,
[032] some for obtaining possession, some for retaining possession.²⁰ For the
[033] recovery of possession, that is, of one's own seisin formerly held, by the assise of
[034] novel disseisin; for obtaining possession, that is, another's, namely, that of some
[035] ancestor; for the retention of possession, as in the interdicts, lest one party use
[036] force against another.²¹ Sometimes actions are for the recovery of the possession
[037] and the property at the same time.²² Sometimes for the recovery of a possession
[038] which one had granted to another for a term of life or of years.>²³

Notes

1. ‘exceptione longi temporis’: supra 58, infra 439

2. Azo, Summa Inst. 4.6, no. 46

3. Br. and Azo, 175-6

4. Azo, Summa Inst. 4.6, nos. 37-8; cf. Kantorowicz, 122-4

5. Infra iii, 26

6. Infra 324, 325

7. Infra 318, 322

8. Infra 319

9. Infra 326, 438

10. Azo, Summa Inst. 4.6, no. 47

11. Ibid.; Drogheda, 195

12. From lines 16-18

13. Br. and Azo, 176-7; om: rubric

14. Cf. Kantorowicz, 102-3

15-16. Inst. 4.6.2

17. Ibid.; quo jure: infra iii, 185

18. Supra i, 385

19-20. Inst. 4.15.2

21. Supra 121-2

22. Infra 320

23. Infra iii, 30