Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 292

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Volume 4, Page 292

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[001] previously made in court, nor an attorney earlier appointed, ought to be changed,
[002] since it is the same action and the same writ.

If an exception arising from the person of the demandant lies, of which some are dilatory, some peremptory.

[004] When there is nothing which may be excepted against the writ, we must then see
[005] whether an exception lies for the tenant arising from the person of the demandant,
[006] that he cannot sue, at all or only after a time: at all, as where the demandant is a
[007] villein or a bastard or¹ civilly dead, as he who has taken the habit of religion,² [or]
[008] because of defective understanding, as where he is a madman or of unsound mind,³
[009] [or] because of a lack of some of the senses, as where he is born deaf and dumb,⁴ [or]
[010] because of an incurable disease, as where he is a leper and put outside the communion
[011] of mankind,⁵ [or] that an action does not lie for him because he is removable, as a
[012] monk or a canon who is not perpetual,⁶ [or] because of felony, his own or that of his
[013] ancestors;⁷ only after a time, because he is a minor and under age,⁸ [in a proprietary
[014] action, though he may sue in a possessory one,] because of his defective understanding,
[015] for he is not far removed from a madman, nor a madman from a brute,⁹ [or]
[016] because of uncertainty of some kind, as where one is in a uncertain status with
[017] respect to a dignity or his body, so that the matter is in suspense until something is
[018] done or not done, [his body], as where one is appealed of life and members in a criminal
[019] action; he cannot sue in a civil action until he has defended himself in the criminal,¹⁰
[020] no more than a tenant is bound to reply in a similar [case]; a dignity, as where an
[021] abbot or prior or another, deposed from a dignity, has appealed to a superior to save
[022] his status, for if a suit were brought against such persons, or if they should sue against
[023] others, judgments might be illusory, since by a fortuitous event everything could be
[024] revoked. An exception arising from the person of the demandant lies for the tenant
[025] because of the absence of nationality, as where the demandant has adhered to the
[026] enemies of the lord king, as where he is in the allegiance of the king of France; an
[027] action is denied to such, at least until the lands and kingdoms [again] become common.¹¹
[028] An exception also lies for the tenant because of the leprosy of the demandant's
[029] soul, as where he has been excommunicated,¹² not in general but in his own name,
[030] for as there may be leprosy in the body so there may be in the soul, and as

Notes

1. ‘vel’

2. Infra 310

3. Infra 308

4. Infra 309

5. Supra ii, 52, infra 309

6. Supra ii, 53, infra 330, 335

7. Infra 310

8. Infra 311

9. Infra 356

10. Supra ii, 319

11. Infra 328, 331, 332. Not after 1259

12. Infra 325