Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 32

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Volume 3, Page 32

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[001] If one [or several] of such parceners¹ disseises one of his parceners, he will have the
[002] assise against his parceners, to hold in common. If two, each will have his assise by
[003] himself because there are separate disseisins. The same will be true of several in an
[004] action for recovering² their own possession, after the inheritance has once been
[005] acquired but before partition, [because] there are different rights though in an unspecified
[006] thing. In acquiring the seisin of an ancestor in a proprietary action, where
[007] there are different persons and different heads but, so to speak, a single heir, because
[008] of the [single] right to which they are entitled, no one of the several may claim the
[009] seisin of an ancestor, near or remote,³ without the other, since all are, so to speak, one
[010] heir because of their unitary right. When the inheritance has once been taken up and
[011] acquired, whether it has been divided among the individual parceners or not, no one
[012] of the several will answer without the other in a proprietary action on the seisin of an
[013] ancestor, nor even in a possessory action, in an assise of mortdancestor, as below.
[014] But with respect to his own seisin, however, if a parcener, one or several, is ejected
[015] by a parcener, or by several parceners, or by strangers, each will have his own remedy
[016] by the assise, without his parcener, because there are several disseisins. And conversely,
[017] if one or several co-heirs disseise their co-heirs, one or several, or strangers,
[018] one or several, each will answer by himself with respect to his act and his injuria, because
[019] pain ought to fall upon those who cause it. [Before the inheritance is taken up,
[020] the right and seisin of the ancestor are conjoined, and so must be claimed jointly from
[021] all, who, conjoined, are, so to speak, a single heir. When it has been taken up there
[022] begins to be a single joint right and different seisins,⁴ but held in common until partition.
[023] Therefore no one will answer without his parcener to one who claims the seisin
[024] or the right of his ancestor, neither in a proprietary action nor a possessory one by
[025] assise of mortdancestor, since all is theirs in common, that is, the property and the
[026] possession.]⁵ If a stranger claims on his own seisin in an action of disseisin and spoliation,
[027] if all committed the disseisin, all are bound and fall into the assise; if only some,
[028] they are bound, not the others. And so, if only one committed the disseisin, he alone
[029] falls into the assise and is subject to the penalty, not the others.⁶ But suppose the
[030] disseisee has once recovered against him by the assise, either a tenement or a right of
[031] pasture, and a parcener other than the first disseisor ejects him again from the same
[032] thing, and the disseisee brings the assise against him; quaere whether it ought to
[033] proceed. At first sight it seems that it should, because, though the thing is the same
[034] the persons are different, but in truth it is not to be taken, because that would be to
[035] take an assise on an assise,⁷ and for this reason, because it might well happen that
[036] the last assise would be contrary to the first, and by the last what had been properly
[037] done by the first overthrown, and thus judgments might hang in suspense and be
[038] uncertain, which must not be.⁸

Notes

1. ‘Si unum vel plures extalibus’

2. ‘recuperanda’

3. ‘propinquae vel remotae’

4. ‘seisinae diversae’

5. The portion infra 33, n. 2, belongs here

6. Infra 170

7. Infra 352

8. Drogheda, 112, 137, 165, 328