Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 83

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Volume 4, Page 83

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[001] does it lie after a default, after the land has been taken into the hand of the lord
[002] king.¹ <Nor where the terms of the mandate impose no necessity on the person called
[003] to come unless he so wishes, as where it is said that he may come if it seems expedient
[004] to him. Nor if a sheriff or bailiff, or the mayor or reeve of a vill or borough
[005] or city is ordered or commanded to come and render an account, or answer concerning
[006] his term of office, because there is here neither plea nor controversy.>²³ Who
[007] may essoin himself? It is clear that several tenants may do so as well as one. It then
[008] is important whether the several tenants in the one writ hold in common together
[009] and in undivided shares or separately and individually, the inheritance having been
[010] divided among co-heirs. If together and in undivided shares, each of them, if he
[011] wishes, will have a single essoin of difficulty in coming, together and on the same
[012] day or successively and on different days, as they choose, until each of them has a
[013] single essoin, because they will not have more before they appear together, even
[014] though those who were first essoined appear on several occasions, because they will
[015] always have a day until they all appear together, because an essoin does not follow
[016] upon every appearance, for if it did, everlasting delays would thus be caused. If one
[017] of the several tenants in common dies before all appear, the writ falls, though the
[018] contrary may seem to be true since his portion accrues to the survivors by the jus
[019] accrescendi,⁴ because in truth on the day of impetration they did not hold that part,
[020] nor was there, with respect to their holding of that part in common, any reason for
[021] impetrating. If the inheritance is partitioned among several and one only is impleaded
[022] with respect to his part, he will have a single essoin before he appears, if he
[023] wishes, and the matter, to the extent of that part, will be determined in his person,
[024] unless he says that he ought not to answer without his parceners, in which case the
[025] parceners are to be summoned to be present to answer with him and without whom
[026] etc.⁵ Then each of [the several] who are said to be parceners will have a single
[027] essoin before appearance, but not as a single heir, so to speak, and successively,
[028] until it is established that they are parceners. When all are present and cannot deny
[029] that⁶ they are parceners, henceforth they will be, so to speak, a single heir. For
[030] division of an inheritance causes the unitary right to become several and consequently
[031] the heirs to be several, [but] the defence of all revives the unitary right, and
[032] thus a common defence again makes the several persons a single body, so to speak,
[033] and a single heir, because of the unitary nature⁷ of the right, for if [one] tenant
[034] loses, all

Notes

1. Supra i, 412

2. Supra 81, infra 90

3. New paragraph

4. Supra iii, 306, infra 227, 334

5. Supra iii, 306, infra 84, 127, 333-4; om: ‘Et etiam quo casu’

6. ‘quod’

7. ‘unitatem’