Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 192

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Volume 4, Page 192

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[001] as he who has any corporeal thing, as land or¹ a tenement, from another by some lawful
[002] title or justa causa of acquisition, as by that of gift, sale, exchange and the like,
[003] sometimes with a charter of express warranty and homage, [unless the charter states
[004] that, despite the homage, if the donor is vouched to warranty he is not bound to
[005] warrant nor to escambium, and so agreement defeats law,]² sometimes without a
[006] charter, because of homage [alone], whether he is of age or a minor, provided that a
[007] minor who is vouched may not answer to the warranty before his full age. And the
[008] same may be said of rights, as wardships, marriages and the like. It is said ‘everyone
[009] who is not forbidden,’ because one cannot vouch a warrantor in a penal action, where
[010] one is to be convicted of his own delict or injuria and corporal punishment is to be
[011] imposed, since pains ought to fall upon those who cause them not upon others.³

Who may be vouched to warranty.

[013] We must see who may be vouched to warranty. It is clear that it may be a male or a
[014] female, either a minor or a person of full age, provided that if a minor is vouched the
[015] plea of warranty remains in suspense until his full age, unless the action is so favoured
[016] that his age ought not to be a waited, as in the action of dower. Not only is he who has
[017] given or sold to be vouched to warranty, but their heirs as well, descending ad infinitum,
[018] by reason of the words of the charter, ‘I and my heirs will warrant to such a
[019] one and his heirs etc.’⁴ In that case the heirs are bound to warrant whether they are
[020] near or remote, more remote or most remote. And what is said of heirs may be said of
[021] assigns and of those who stand in the place of heirs, as chief lords, who, so to speak,
[022] succeed their tenants because of the failure of heirs or delict, as in [the portion] on the
[023] escheats of lords.⁵ And that a warranty ought to extend to assigns, by the modus of the
[024] gift, is proved [in the roll] of the eyre of William of Ralegh in the county of Warwick,
[025] near the end of the roll.⁶ This is especially so if the first chief lord and first feoffer has
[026] taken the homage and service of the assignee.

Notes

1. ‘vel’

2. Infra 215, 220; om: ‘Item . . . warantizare,’ a connective

3. Supra iii, 32, 55, 118, 157

4. Supra ii, 118, infra 215

5. Supra ii, 195

6. Not in B.N.B.; roll extant