Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 117

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Volume 3, Page 117

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[001] as far as the lord is concerned, by his disavowal he makes himself a non-tenant as far
[002] as he himself is concerned, and thus the assise will lie.¹ ²<When the tenant, to save
[003] himself, excepts against the assise that it ought not to proceed as to the service because
[004] he holds of him, restitution by the assise ceases³ at once, because of this acknowledgement,
[005] and the assise falls, but not so that he against whom the assise is arraigned
[006] may withdraw quit, but because he acknowledges in court that he holds of him,
[007] [distress arises], and let [him] distrain the other to pay the service due, and let the
[008] sheriff be ordered, without another writ, to aid him to distrain if necessary;⁴ if there
[009] is disagreement as to the kind or the amount of the service, let that remain for discussion
[010] between the parties.> Suppose that a non-lord stranger compels the tenant by
[011] force and against his will to pay the rent to him, or not to pay his lord; the stranger,
[012] not the tenant, disseises the lord of his quasi free-tenement.⁵ And so if the tenant pays
[013] the stranger voluntarily. But the assise lies for the lord against the stranger,⁶ if the
[014] lord so wishes, and distraint against the tenant, since he has not disavowed the lord,
[015] but he must be content with one of these. If, when he has not been disavowed, he recovers
[016] against the tenant by distraint, or when he has, recovers the rent by the assise,
[017] he who disavowed or who willingly paid the non-lord is bound to service to both, to
[018] his lord of necessity and to the non-lord because of his own will.⁷ ⁸Let distraint be
[019] made whether there are several mesne tenants or none, because the chief lord may
[020] always betake himself to his fee and the tenant to his warrantor,⁹ because distraint
[021] always lies, provided¹⁰ it does not exceed due measure,¹¹ no matter who is in possession,
[022] a guardian, creditor, farmer or others. If someone¹² ejects his tenant distraint
[023] lies for the lord, disseisin for the tenant. ¹³A rent given to another out of a tenement,
[024] in fee, to him and his heirs, is either given with power to distrain or without it. If with,
[025] then as above. If without, then the assise. But if it is a rent issuing out of a chamber,
[026] then neither distraint nor the assise, but the writ de annuo redditu.¹⁴ [And so] if it is
[027] issuing out of a tenement to be paid by the hand of someone other than the tenant,¹⁵
[028] [distraint or disseisin may still be available.] A rent may be due not by reason of the
[029] aforesaid, but by reason of a thing intermediate between the two, as where he receives
[030] a rent by reason of a hundred, when some make fine for suits and the like; one cannot
[031] have an assise for such rent [since he cannot have the rent] unless he has the hundred,¹⁶
[032] and he

Notes

1. Supra ii, 243, iii, 36, 116

2. Supra i, 398

3. ‘cessat restitutio per assisam,’ as supra 36, 38

4. ‘in iudicio, distringat . . . debitum et sine alio . . . vicecomiti quod sit’; supra 36

5. ‘Esto quod . . . domini,’ from lines 2-5; om: ‘quia’; B.N.B., no. 1239

6. Supra 36

7. Supra ii, 230

8. New sentence

9. Cf. supra ii, 78

10. ‘quia semper iacet districtio dum tamen’

11. Infra 154

12. ‘aliquis’

13. New paragraph

14. Supra 59

15. Ibid.

16. Supra 60