Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 16

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Volume 3, Page 16

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[001] time [in possession], long and peaceful, he will not recover by the assise of novel disseisin,
[002] as in the eyre of Martin of Pateshull in the counties of Hereford and Worcester
[003] in the third year of king Henry, an assise of novel disseisin [beginning] ‘If William
[004] Chamberlanus.’]¹ ²‘[The king to the sheriff etc.] Order A. rightfully and without delay
[005] to render to B. so much land etc. in which he has no entry except by the intrusion he
[006] made into it after the death of such a one etc.’ [If³ the tenant says he holds nothing
[007] except in the name of one who is under age and in his wardship, so that he may
[008] neither gain nor lose [that land], the writ falls. If both are named in the writ, the
[009] minor and the guardian, it falls as to the guardian, because he holds nothing except
[010] in the name of wardship. But if it is put thus:

The writ of attachment.

[012] ‘[The king to the sheriff etc.] Put under gage and safe pledges etc.,’ as above, so that
[013] the action is wholly personal, [then], though both are named in the writ, it does not
[014] fall, though the action savours somewhat of novel disseisin, because what is in issue
[015] is not primarily the tenement and the intrusion but only the intrusion by itself, as
[016] to which both those who have right in the thing and those who have none may be
[017] guilty.] ⁴[And if] he, the intruder recently ejected, cannot have the assise, by the
[018] same token he cannot have a conviction if he loses by the assise. And similarly, if he
[019] has no action, he has no exception if he despoils another, that the assise of novel disseisin
[020] does not lie for him, as where he says that the disseisee is a villein, or has⁵ no
[021] right in the tenement, or is a bastard, or has [only] tenuous seisin, because these matters
[022] are no concern of his, and because if he wished to claim by action none would lie
[023] for him, and the tenant could thus remain in possession forever, though he had no
[024] right in the thing possessed, because when neither has right the cause of the possessor
[025] is the stronger.⁶ Thus if one who has no right ejects him [who has no right], the ejector
[026] will not have an exception against him, since if he claimed he would have no action.⁷

Of intrusion.

[028] One may proceed by [writ] of intrusion where another, by force of a charter or his
[029] homage [taken]⁸ puts himself in seisin of a tenement of which he had none in the lifetime
[030] of the donor. And so if he puts himself in seisin without writ, procurator or
[031] warrant.⁹

If a gift is made to two persons; of intrusion.

[033] And so when a gift [of the same land] is made to two persons and livery only to one,
[034] and the other puts himself in seisin on his own authority, by reason of the naked
[035] charter.¹⁰

Notes

1. Not in B.N.B.; probably Selden Soc. vol. 53, no. 1282 (Worcester, 5 Hen. 3), marked on roll, where the intruder, ejected after three weeks, was Ricardus Capellanus; one of the ejectors was Ricardus Camerarius. The intruder's assise of novel disseisin failed. Continued infra n. 4

2. Om: ‘Si autem . . . tale breve,’ a connective

3. ‘Si’

4. Continued from n. 1

5. ‘habuerit’

6. D. 50.17.126.2; 50.17.154

7. Infra 27

8. B.N.B., no. 428

9. Supra ii, 126

10. Supra ii, 138