Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 76

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Volume 3, Page 76

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[001] [If he has committed robbery with the disseisin he will suffer a triple penalty, an
[002] amercement for the disseisin, imprisonment because of the peace, a heavy redemption
[003] for the robbery. He will not lose life or member because of the robbery, however,
[004] since proceedings are not brought against him criminally, by appeal.] He shall also
[005] give the sheriff an ox or five shillings, which may be called the fourth,¹ provided²
[006] he is the principal disseisor. Those who are accessories, who give aid or counsel,
[007] will give nothing, though in some counties it is otherwise observed. ‘The principal,’
[008] I say, whether there is one or several.³ He shall also give damages, to be fixed by the
[009] oath of the jurors, and taxed (if necessary) at a lesser amount by the justices if the
[010] jurors exceed due measure;⁴ they ought not to fix them at a sum greater than that
[011] set by the jurors in their oath, unless to their certain knowledge the jurors have
[012] taxed them at less than was proper, which they are not free to do, as was said above,
[013] lest⁵ the disseisor profit from another's damage.⁶ For there are many magnates and
[014] other powerful men who commit many disseisins because of the gain they thereby
[015] hope to obtain, disseisins which, but for that gain, would not otherwise be committed,
[016] for when they have taken large sums of money and other advantages from
[017] the profits and fruits of the land over a long period of time, they hope to escape the
[018] king's mercy by the payment of a small sum, and so make a profit, because the
[019] jurors, since they take the tenement from the disseisors, often do not wish to burden
[020] them with damages, that they may thus give each party [something by way of a]
[021] peace-offering and satisfaction.

How the justices ought to inquire into the damages.

[023] In order to remove any such occasion for wrongful action, let the justices examine
[024] and enquire, therefore, not negligently but diligently, into what damages have been
[025] committed in houses, gardens, woods and other places, and what waste and exile and
[026] destruction the disseisors have done, and, if such have been done, how and at what
[027] cost they may best and most usefully be amended. They ought to inquire what has
[028] been taken in issues, crops and rents and other profits of the land and to estimate
[029] carefully ⁷what profit the disseisee would have had if he had not been ejected from
[030] the tenement.⁸ When the thing is restored to the disseisee, the estate, tenement or the
[031] like, an account must be made of the things taken away, that they may be restored
[032] with the thing itself, as arms, utensils, horses, oxen and the like, which sometimes
[033] ought to be restored without the thing itself, [according as] there has been a disseisin
[034] or not, and if such things are not restored, the jurisdiction of the justices will always
[035] continue until they are restored, with the thing itself.⁹ ¹⁰All things are to be restored,
[036] not only

Notes

1. ‘quae dici . . . quarta,’ from lines 1-2

2. ‘tamen’

3. Supra 41, 47, infra 118-9

4. Supra ii, 438

5. ‘ne’

6. Supra 75

7-8. D. 43.16.1.31

9. D. 43.16.1.32

10-11. D. 43.16.1.33