Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 143

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Volume 3, Page 143

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[001] an assise. Therefore [the jurors] are not subject to a conviction, because of the consent
[002] of the parties, since they place themselves upon the jury freely, or of necessity lest
[003] they be without defence.¹ Such are, in the first place, the question of status, the causa
[004] of succession, gift, a pact or agreement. Also uncertainty, that is, where certainty as
[005] to the thing or tenement can in no way be reached; it is otherwise if it may be reached,
[006] though with difficulty.² Also consent or dissimulation, because the disseisee wished
[007] to be disseised, whether that was so from the first or later.³ Also a settlement, because
[008] the disseisee remitted the injuria and quit-claimed the tenement. Also confirmation
[009] or consent, as where the disseisor gives the thing seized to another with the consent
[010] of the disseisee and the disseisee confirms the gift, or ratifies it in some other way,
[011] when it is first made or afterwards.⁴ Also usurpation by the disseisee of his own property
[012] without judgment, after time has passed. Also difficulty in giving judgment,
[013] that is, where the matter can in no way be decided by the justices; if it may in some
[014] way be determined, though with difficulty, it is otherwise.⁵ Also res judicata, if a just
[015] judgment has been given. Also a fine levied and a chirograph. Also intrusion into
[016] another's property or a disseisin, if they are re-ejected at once. Also negligence which
[017] in the course of time bars the action and the assise. There are some [exceptions] which
[018] do not destroy the assise though they defer it for a time, as exceptions against the
[019] writ and persons, as appears sufficiently from what has been said above. Thus we
[020] must see how they fall into the assise and are determined by a jury, [those] as to
[021] which nothing was said above. First of the exception of status, as where villeinage is
[022] raised by way of an exception,⁶ [as above more fully [in the portion] on exceptions
[023] of villeinage.]

If the causa of succession falls into the assise.

[025] The causa of succession falls into the assise in this way. Suppose that the plaintiff
[026] supports his claim and says that such an ancestor of his died seised of such a tenement
[027] as of fee, and that he as his nearer heir put himself into seisin, and that he was in
[028] seisin for so long a time until such a one wrongfully ejected him. The exception may
[029] be made to this that the ancestor did not die seised as of fee, but held for life in some
[030] way, or for a term or in gage, and that the plaintiff had nothing except by intrusion
[031] and was at once ejected by the tenant who is the true lord (or the right heir, or the
[032] chief lord), or that the plaintiff, though he might be the heir, put himself into seisin
[033] over the chief lord, who had first seisin as chief lord, and that he intruded himself on
[034] his seisin before it was clear whether

Notes

1. Infra 150

2. Supra 140, infra 148

3. Infra 148

4. Ibid.

5. Infra 149

6. Deleted