Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 130

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Volume 2, Page 130

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[001] recover;¹ if he impugns it, let the question first be argued between them, then let
[002] the assise proceed or not against the stranger.>

When the donee begins and the donor ceases to possess.

[004] We must also see when after livery the donee begins to possess and the donor ceases
[005] to do so. [That depends on whether the donee is in possession by himself and has
[006] vacant seisin free of the donor and his people, or whether the donor (or some of his
[007] people in his name) is in possession with the donee.] It is clear that the donor never
[008] ceases to possess until the donee begins to possess, for one having begun the other
[009] ceases. [The donor ceases] provided the donee is in vacant possession and the donor
[010] and his people are out of possession, corpore and [without] the animus possidendi,
[011] and the donee is in possession corpore (his own or another's, in his name) with the
[012] animus possidendi.² ³<The donor ceases to possess when he has put himself out of
[013] seisin corpore, with the intention of giving and transferring to the donee, [‘Corpore,’
[014] I say, his own and that of his people,]⁴ and the donee begins when he has entered
[015] into vacant possession by himself or by his people, that is, in his own person or theirs,
[016] with the intention of possessing and retaining. Thus one ceases and the other begins.
[017] But how may we ascertain the intention with which the donor has made the
[018] gift, since only God looks upon the heart of man and man must judge by the face
[019] alone?⁵ By what is outward, in the light of external acts and according to the sight
[020] and understanding of men.⁶ For they can say, ‘We saw that such a one, freely
[021] and of his own will, without coercion, left [the land] and that the donee freely
[022] entered.’> ⁷It is clear that possession is acquired animo and corpore, not corpore alone
[023] nor animo alone; and as it is acquired by both, it is not lost unless it is lost by both,⁸
[024] because [If one is ejected from possession he does not at once lose both natural
[025] possession and civil, because he may retain civil possession animo though he is out of
[026] possession, as will be explained below [in the portion] on the assise,⁹ [or natural
[027] possession]¹⁰ corpore (which does not often occur without animo) as after one's death,
[028] until his corpse is borne away to burial, because at that moment he ceases to
[029] possess in both ways.]¹¹ possession will not be vacant earlier, that is, not retained
[030] either animo or corpore. This matter will be explained more fully below [in the
[031] portion on] the assise.¹² Some [donors] really cease to possess, some only seem to
[032] do so, for [as] a gift may be illusory so may a livery, for one may have natural
[033] possession truly and rightfully and also

Notes

1. No livery but ratification suffices, as supra 129

2. Om: ‘et sic ... possidere’

3. Suprai, 380

4. Supra 123, infra 131

5. Reg. i, 16:17; Joan. 7: 24; infra 131, 153

6. Drogheda, 143: ‘et sic probat per exteriora quae visu hominum perpendi possunt;’ infra 131, 153

7. New paragraph

8. Supra 122, infra 140, 154, iii, 270

9. Infra iii, 23

10. Infra 155

11. ‘cum corpus ... possidere,’ from lines 31-2

12. Infra 154 ff.