Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 193

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Volume 4, Page 193

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If a minor is vouched to warranty.

[002] ¹[If a minor is vouched to warranty with respect to a liberty, whether by himself or
[003] with others, we must first inquire whether the minor's ancestor was seised of that
[004] liberty as of fee on the year and day on which he was alive and dead, to this end, that
[005] he be given or denied a delay.]² He who holds for life may be vouched to warranty,
[006] and may vouch, as well as he who holds in fee, and similarly he who holds for a term
[007] of years. And that he who holds for a term may vouch, though reason suggests the
[008] contrary, is proved [in the roll] of the eyre of William of Ralegh in the county of
[009] Warwick, [the case] of one Sybil who sought dower, near the end of the roll.³

Sometimes a husband vouches his wife to warranty.

[011] A husband properly vouches his wife to warranty without aid of the court⁴ ⁵<unless
[012] the woman, taken from man's rib, rises over his head and rules her husband,> if she is
[013] not named in the writ [and] it is acknowledged or proved that the husband holds
[014] nothing except in his wife's name,⁶ though according to some the writ ought rather to
[015] fall. It will be otherwise, as is evident, if gifts have been made [to him by her] before
[016] marriage (it is otherwise during marriage)⁷ with seisin and use for a time. In that case
[017] the husband vouches his wife in the same way he would any other person, and when
[018] she has warranted and the husband has lost she will be bound to escambium, which is
[019] not so in the first case. Conversely, if a husband makes a gift to his wife before marriage
[020] and the wife is impleaded by herself, without her husband, [she will no more answer
[021] [as to that] without him than as to the rest of her inheritance,] she may, so it seems,
[022] vouch him to warranty, and if she loses he may be bound to escambium, just as is said
[023] of the wife. When husband and wife both plead and sue, the husband being his wife's
[024] attorney, and the tenant then vouches the wife to warranty, she must again appear in
[025] court and appoint her husband (or another) her attorney in the plea of warranty,
[026] because her husband is not attorney in that plea though he is in the principal plea, as
[027] may be seen [in the roll] of the eyre of Martin of Pateshull in the county of York in the
[028] tenth year of king Henry, [the case] of Peter de Malo Lacu and Isabel his wife and
[029] John de Besacre.⁸ And let the same be done in every plea where the tenant has
[030] vouched a warrantor, let the demandant appoint an attorney de novo, though this is
[031] not true of the tenant.

Notes

1. Belongs supra 192

2. Infra 194, 224

3. Not in B.N.B.; roll extant

4. Infra 234, 293

5. Supra i, 416

6. B.N.B., nos. 1508, 1510

7. Supra ii, 97

8. B.N.B., no. 1869