Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 205

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Volume 3, Page 205

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OF THE ASSISE OF DARREIN PRESENTMENT

Of the assise of darrein presentment.

[003] We have explained above how he is to be aided who has been disseised, wrongfully
[004] and without judgment, of some tenement, or of some servitude appurtenant to [his]
[005] tenement in another's estate, [an interest] which exists as a right. Now we must
[006] speak of appurtenances which exist as rights in one's own estate, that is,¹ of seisin
[007] [of a right] of presentation,² where one is prevented from using his own seisin, or that
[008] of some ancestor,³ when he presents⁴ to a vacant church to which he or his ancestors
[009] have presented in time of peace, since he who last presented ought to have his own
[010] seisin, or [that] of his ancestor, unless he who deforces or impedes⁵ can show good
[011] reason why he ought not to have it, which may be decided and determined by an
[012] assise of darrein presentment, both or only one of the parties raising the matter in
[013] court.⁶ But first we must see for whom the assise lies, because it does not lie for anyone
[014] but only for him who has once presented in his own name, on his own seisin, [or
[015] presents] as heir by reason of succession on the seisin of some ancestor of his whom
[016] he succeeds by hereditary right.⁷ And what is said of one heir may be said⁸ ofseveral,
[017] and against several, when they are so to speak a single heir, for no one may bring
[018] the assise or answer to it without his parcener or co-heir, any more than he may in
[019] the other assises. And if several parceners recover by the assise, no one of them shall
[020] present without the other, neither by reason of aenescia, nor of full age, nor of a
[021] majority, because either all agree [and present together] or no one may present.⁹ For
[022] others, those who hold by feoffment and not by descent, the assise never lies until
[023] they have once presented, for they cannot sue by the assise on the seisin of those
[024] whose heirs they are not, any more than they can by writ of right.¹⁰ Nor does it lie
[025] for one who holds for life in some way and not by descent, as in dower or for a term.¹¹
[026] Such persons will be aided in another way, as will be explained below.¹²

Notes

1. ‘scilicet’

2. Om: ‘scilicet’

3. ‘antecessoris’

4. ‘praesentaverit,’ as Fleta, v, ca. 11

5. ‘impediat,’ OA, OC, CE

6. Glanvill, xiii, 18: ‘poterit controversia illa per recognitionem de ultima presentatione decidi, alterutro litigantium id in curia postulante’

7. Om: ‘ad quod pertinet advocatio’

8. ‘dici’

9. Supra ii, 223, infra 225, 235

10. Infra 230, iv, 178

11. Infra 212

12. Infra 229, 230