Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 73

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Volume 2, Page 73

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[001] to follow, as if I say, ‘I give you this thing that¹ you will serve me well,’ the
[002] same must still be said.² If where the causa is to follow a condition is added, as where
[003] I say, ‘I give you this land if you will serve me well,’ the gift will be in suspense. ³It
[004] will be in suspense until the condition occurs or does not; [if] it occurs it will be
[005] complete and absolute, but subject to resolution under the condition if good service
[006] does not follow.⁴

That a condition prevents descent to right heirs.

[008] A condition may prevent descent to right heirs against common right, as where I
[009] say, ‘I grant you so much land for the term of ten years after which it is to revert
[010] to me, [but] if I die within the ten year term I grant for myself and my heirs that
[011] the land remain to you for your life’ or ‘in fee’; thus it makes [of a term] a
[012] free tenement or⁵ a fee and takes the assise of mortdancestor from heirs, for though
[013] at first sight they have a direct action the termor will have an exception on the
[014] agreement.⁶ Similarly, what at the beginning was a free tenement and for life may
[015] by an agreement be changed into a term, as where one grants land to another for
[016] life, the condition being made between them that if the tenant dies within a
[017] certain time his heirs or assigns or his executors may hold the land so given for a
[018] certain term after the tenant's death. Thus a condition makes of a term a free
[019] tenement and conversely, and gives an exception against true lords and their
[020] heirs. In the same way it furnishes an exception against the assise of novel
[021] disseisin, as [in the case] of finding another in necessaries, adequately expounded
[022] above. It also gives a creditor an exception against his debtor, the true lord and
[023] his heirs, as where⁷ it is agreed between them at the outset that if his money is not
[024] paid on the day the land given in gage may remain to the creditor and his heirs,
[025] as below [in the portion on] the assise of mortdancestor,⁸ [the case] of the heir of
[026] John Dacy.⁹ A condition also provides an exception against true heirs and the
[027] assise of mortdancestor, as where one says, when about to go abroad, ‘I grant to
[028] A. such land of mine for a term certain (as in the case of crusaders) provided that
[029] if I return he restore my land to me and if I die on the journey (or ‘do not return’)
[030] it remain to A. in fee.’ If the condition that the traveller not return occurs and his
[031] heir claims by assise of mortdancestor, an exception based on the condition will
[032] bar him, [Thus the gift will be mixed, that is, a feoffment and a term; they have
[033] one beginning but a different end, and since the term

Notes

1. ‘ut

2. Supra 69

3-4. Reading: ‘In pendenti erit donec existat conoicio vel non; [si] existat pure erit et perfecta, resolvitur tamen donatio sub condicione ...’

5. ‘vel’

6. Infra iii, 287, 294

7. ‘ut si’

8. Infra iii, 286, 287, 294

9. Not identified