Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 216

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Bracton Online -- English

Volume 4, Page 216

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[001] there is no express warranty nor has homage and service been done, provided it is
[002] established by the fine and chirograph that the tenant ought to hold of him who is
[003] vouched to warranty.

If only homage.

[005] There is also a special case, where one [B.] is bound to warranty and escambium though
[006] another [A.] is in seisin of his [B.'s] tenant's homage and service, as the donor's chief
[007] lord, that is, where the tenant [C.] has offered his homage and service to his lord and
[008] his lord has rejected them without just cause; the tenant may then safely achieve to
[009] the donor's lord and do homage and service to him by reason of his own lord's default,
[010] yet his lord will be bound to warrant him.¹ A lord [B.] is also bound to a warranty by
[011] reason of homage alone, though he receives no service from his tenant [C.], as when he
[012] [C.] is distrained for service owed to the chief lord [A.] because of the default of his
[013] own lord [B.], who is mesne, who takes the whole service and puts it into his own
[014] purse, and does not acquit his tenant thereof against his [own] feoffor. He [C.] may
[015] achieve to the chief lord [A.] with respect to his service, after a public declaration
[016] before honest men, because of his lord's default, and yet his lord will be bound to
[017] warrant him.²

When a warrantor warrants the proceeding against the tenant is suspended until the plea of warranty is determined.

[019] After essoins and delays, of which enough was said above,³ the demandant, the tenant
[020] and the warrantor having appeared in court, and [if] the sheriff has sent the writ summoning
[021] the warrantor, the principal plea is suspended until the plea of warranty is
[022] determined. Having heard the writ of warranty, the warrantor may except against it,
[023] as where there is error in the names of the persons or vills, in order to destroy it, as
[024] explained more fully elsewhere [in the portion] on errors.⁴

A warrantor will not be bound to an escambium greater than that for which he is vouched to warranty.

[026] He cannot claim the view,⁵ because what is said [in the writ], ‘to warrant so much
[027] land which such a one claims,’ adequately suffices for a view,⁶ but let the warrantor at
[028] once enquire of the tenant whether he has anything by which he is bound to a warranty,
[029] a charter or other matter. If he has charters or a document let him show it at
[030] once, for he ought to come prepared to prove his intentio.

Notes

1. Supra ii, 240

2. Supra ii, 244

3. Supra 71 et seq.

4. Supra iii, 79

5. Supra 183

6. Supra 181, infra 230