Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 289

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Bracton Online -- English

Volume 4, Page 289

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[001] has no land in the county named.] A writ impetrated contrary to the law and custom
[002] of the realm falls, especially one contrary to the charter of liberty, as the writ called
[003] praecipe, by which a free man may lose [his] court.¹ If it goes beyond existing law,²
[004] provided it is in accordance with reason and not contrary to law, it must be sustained,
[005] provided it has been granted by the king and approved by his council, [It ought to be
[006] limited to the person [and] not granted except of special grace.]³ nor does it matter
[007] whether the magnates have expressly given their assent, as long as they do not dissent
[008] expressly, a sufficient reason being shown why it ought not to be good, for it is
[009] the king's duty to provide an adequate remedy to repress every wrong.⁴ General writs
[010] ought generally to be observed as law, since they are original and form the origin of
[011] actions. A writ also falls if the tenant holds less than the demandant claims; it is
[012] otherwise if he holds more. And so if at the time it was impetrated there was no reason
[013] for impetrating it,⁵ because at the time of its date and impetration no action or causa
[014] petendi lay for the demandant; nor any causa conquerendi because at that time no disseisin
[015] or other injuria had been committed.⁶ A writ is invalid because he who now
[016] holds was not in seisin of the thing claimed, the whole or a part, at the time of impetration,
[017] [though he at once claims the view, when he holds nothing or only part,
[018] he does not on that account lose his exception to the writ,]⁷ though after impetration
[019] he begins to possess the whole, though it may seem that the circumstances in which
[020] the action could begin have come about.⁸ A writ also falls if one to whom several
[021] actions and several writs are available with respect to the same thing, having made
[022] his choice, begins to sue by one action and one writ, and while that action and writ
[023] are pending, betakes himself to another. [The writ subsequently impetrated falls,
[024] because he has not withdrawn from the first,⁹ as among the pleas which follow the
[025] king in the thirty-first year, in a plea between Peter of

Notes

1. Magna Carta (1215) ca.34; (1225) ca.24

2. Drogheda, 321-2

3. Cf. Lewis in Speculum, xxxix, 249 n.

4. Supra ii, 305

5. Supra iii, 79; Drogheda, 329

6. Drogheda, 327

7. Om: ‘Et haec . . . sunt,’ a connective

8. D. 9.2.16; supra iii, 66, 114, 321

9. Supra ii, 297